Commentaria in Esther
Chapter the Thirteenth. Synopsis of the chapter
Copy of the letter of Ahasuerus sent by Aman for the common slaughter of the Jews, which in historical order is to be inserted at chapter iii, 14, as the Roman Greek inserts it there. Then, verse 8, follows the prayer of Mardochai for averting this slaughter, which in historical order is to be placed after chapter iv.
1. The great king Artaxerxes, from India to Ethiopia, to the princes and governors of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, who are subject to his empire, greeting. 2. Whereas I ruled over many nations, and had brought the whole world under my dominion, I was minded not to abuse the greatness of my power, but to govern my subjects with clemency and mildness, that they might live quietly without any terror, and might enjoy the peace desired by all men. 3. But when I asked my counsellors how this might be accomplished, one that excelled the rest in wisdom and fidelity, and was second after the king, Aman by name, 4. told me that there was a people scattered through the whole world, which used new laws, and, acting against the custom of all nations, despised the commandments of kings, and by their dissent violated the concord of all nations. 5. Which when we had learned, seeing one nation in rebellion against all mankind, using perverse laws, and going against our orders, and disturbing the peace and concord of the provinces subject to us, 6. we have commanded that all whom Aman, who is set over all the provinces, and is second after the king, and whom we honour as a father, shall point out, shall be destroyed by their enemies, with their wives and children, and none shall have pity on them, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar of this present year: 7. that these wicked men going down to hell in one day may restore to our empire the peace which they had disturbed.
8. But Mardochai besought the Lord, remembering all his works, 9. and said: O Lord, Lord, almighty king, all things are in thy power, and there is none that can resist thy will, if thou determine to save Israel. 10. Thou hast made heaven and earth, and all things that are under the cope of heaven. 11. Thou art Lord of all, and there is none that can resist thy majesty. 12. Thou knowest all things, and thou knowest that it was not out of pride and contempt and any desire of glory that I refused to adore the proud Aman, 13. (for I would willingly and readily for the salvation of Israel have kissed even the steps of his feet); 14. but I feared lest I should transfer the honour of my God to a man, and lest I should adore any one except my God. 15. And now, O Lord, O king, God of Abraham, have mercy on thy people, because our enemies resolve to destroy us, and to extinguish thy inheritance. 16. Despise not thy portion, which thou hast redeemed for thyself out of Egypt. 17. Hear my supplication, and be merciful to thy lot and inheritance, and turn our mourning into joy, that we may live and praise thy name, O Lord, and shut not the mouths of them that sing to thee. 18. And all Israel with like mind and supplication cried to the Lord, because certain death was hanging over them.
3. Spending life in silence (that is, quietly, without troubles and tumults)—in peace and tranquillity, as the Greek has it.
6. Be destroyed on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar.—For on the 13th they were commanded to begin the slaughter, but on the 14th to complete it, as it is plain from chapter ix, 17 that the Jews did, the lot being changed. This discrepancy, then, has no force to make the authority and faith of these chapters suspect, as the Innovators will have it.
7. Thus far the copy of the letter.—What follows I find written after that place where it is read: And Mardochai going, did all that Esther had commanded him. Yet they are not in the Hebrew, and are borne by no interpreter at all.
8. In this verse the prayer of Mardochai is recited, before which St. Jerome thus prefaces: These are not in the Hebrew, namely that shorter one which St. Jerome used, nor are they borne by any interpreter, namely Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, the fifth and sixth editions, and the like. For the Septuagint must be excepted, since St. Jerome translated these from them; for before him the Septuagint version was the Vulgate, which the Church used; and from the Vulgate St. Jerome confesses he translated these in the Preface, chapter xv.
Furthermore this prayer of Mardochai is pious, vigorous and ardent, which therefore the Church uses in the Mass on Wednesday after the second Sunday of Lent, from which it is clear that it, as well as the rest of these chapters, is Canonical Scripture according to the decree of the Council of Trent, session IV.
13. For I would willingly and readily for the salvation of Israel have kissed even the steps of his feet.—“Steps” (vestigia), take either properly, which are imprinted by the foot in dust or earth; or metonymically the very feet and soles of the feet by which these steps are imprinted on the earth. Hence Josippon Gorionides has: I would have been ready to lick the shoe that is on his feet, and the dust which he trod upon. It alludes to Isaias xlix, 23: “They shall worship thee with their face toward the earth, and shall lick up the dust of thy feet.” And to Psalm lxxi, 9: “Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down, and his enemies shall lick the ground.” So Serarius and Sanchez, who shows by many examples that vestigium is often taken for the foot imprinting on the earth, that is, for the sole of the foot, which presses the earth and mud and filth; to kiss this was an act of the utmost submission and veneration.
16. Despise not thy portion,—namely the inheritance, that is, the people of Israel, whom thou hast chosen for thyself as an inheritance and peculiar possession, as thine own and special out of all nations.
14. But I feared lest I should transfer the honour of my God (namely the worship of latria due to God alone) to a man.—For Aman wished to be adored as a god, as I showed in chapter iii, 2.
17. And shut not (in Greek: destroy not, that is, suffer not to be shut and destroyed) the mouths of them that sing to thee.—For thus they will no longer be able to sing to thee; and so thy praise will perish both for thee and for us.