Commentaria in Esther
Chapter the Fifteenth. Synopsis of the chapter
Esther in royal array stands before Ahasuerus, but struck by his terrible aspect, once and again falls as if lifeless; whereupon Ahasuerus running to her soothes her and restores her to himself.
These too I find added in the Vulgate edition.
1. And he sent word to her (doubtless Mardochai to Esther) to go in to the king, and to entreat for her people and for her country. 2. Remember, he said, the days of thy low estate, how thou wast nursed by my hand, because Aman, who is next after the king, hath spoken against us unto death: 3. and do thou call upon the Lord, and speak to the king for us, and deliver us from death.
Also these things which are added.
4. And on the third day she laid away the garments she wore, and put on her glorious apparel. 5. And glittering in royal robes, after she had called upon God, the ruler and Saviour of all, she took two maids with her, 6. and upon one of them she leaned, as if for delicacy and overmuch tenderness she was not able to bear up her own body: 7. and the other maid followed her lady, bearing up her train that flowed upon the ground. 8. But she, with a rosy colour in her face, and with gracious and bright eyes, hid a mournful mind, and one that was struck with exceeding fear. 9. So going in, and passing through all the doors in order, she stood before the king, where he sat upon his royal throne, clothed with his royal robes, and glittering with gold and precious stones, and he was terrible to behold. 10. And when he had lifted up his countenance, and with burning eyes had shewn the wrath of his heart, the queen fell down, and her colour turning pale, she rested her weary head upon her handmaid. 11. And God changed the king’s spirit into mildness, and in haste and fear he leaped from his throne, and holding her up in his arms till she came to herself, caressed her with these words: 12. What ails thee, Esther? I am thy brother, fear not. 13. Thou shalt not die: for this law is not made for thee, but for all others. 14. Come near then, and touch the sceptre. 15. And as she held her peace, he took the golden sceptre, and laid it upon her neck, and kissed her, and said: Why dost thou not speak to me? 16. She answered: I saw thee, my lord, as an angel of God, and my heart was troubled for fear of thy majesty. 17. For thou, my lord, art very admirable, and thy face is full of graces. 18. And as she was speaking, she fell down again, and was almost in a swoon. 19. And the king was troubled, and all his servants comforted her.
This chapter is to be inserted in chapter v, verse 2; for what is said there more briefly is here recounted more fully.
2. Thou wast nursed by my hand,—by my hand, that is, by me, and my help and care: although properly infants are carried in the hand and bosom of nurses (such as Mardochai had been to Esther), and are nursed there.
Hath spoken against us unto death,—that is, to death, so that he has condemned us to death by the king’s edict.
4. She laid away the garments of her adornment—modest and sad, in which she had been clothed and adorned for mourning and penance. Hence in Greek it is: she laid away the garments of mourning.
And put on her glorious apparel,—that is, she put on the glorious royal crown and the other golden and gem-set garments, as royal. So Job chapter xix, verse 9, says: “He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head”; for Job was a king, and was crowned with the royal crown.
6. And upon one of them she leaned, as if for delicacy (in Greek as acting delicately, bearing herself delicately) and overmuch tenderness she was not able to bear up her own body.—Esther assumed this appearance of tenderness, that thereby she might move Ahasuerus to mercy. And she was truly tender and weak, both by sex, and by fasting, and by fear; whence she also fell.
8. Hid a mournful mind, and one that was struck with exceeding fear;—for she knew that Darius was terrible, and that his edict about the slaughter of the Jews, already issued and promulgated, by the law of the Persians could not be revoked; again, that it was a capital crime to approach the king unless one had been called by him. Wherefore, knowing that she certainly went into peril of her head, she was full of fear and trembling lest the matter turn out ill, and the king, inflamed, order his edict about slaying the Jews to be executed at once. Hence it follows.
9. So going in, and passing through all the doors in order, she stood before the king.—It is likely that Esther, trembling, did not come near to the king, but, terrified by his terrible aspect, stood at a distance at the door, which was opposite the king sitting on his throne. Hence in chapter v, verse 2, she is said to have stood “in the court of the king’s house, which was the outer, over against the king’s hall.”
thinking himself contemned by Esther. For the kings of the Persians bore great, nay divine majesty, and demanded great reverence, nay latria, from their subjects, wishing to be adored as gods. Besides, Darius was by nature choleric and fierce, as is plain from what Seneca tells of him, book III On Anger, chapter xvi: “When he had declared war on the Scythians, who girdle the East, Darius, asked by Oebazus, a noble old man, to leave one of his three sons as a comfort to his father, and to use the service of the two, promising more than was asked, said that he would send them all back to him; and he cast them, slain, before the eyes of their parent, being about to be cruel if he had led them all away.” He subjoins a like thing of Xerxes the son of Darius: “Who, to Pythius, the father of five sons, asking the discharge of one, allowed him to choose whom he wished. Then he whom he had chosen, torn into two parts, he set on either side of the road, and with this victim purified his army.”
The queen fell down.—Some suspect that she feigned a swoon to bend the king’s anger. But the pallor, and what followed, shows that the swoon was real. For as she went in, she came shrunk with excessive fear; then, seeing the king in such majesty looking at her with flashing and furious eyes, struck with trembling, she fell as if lifeless. For royal majesty wonderfully smites those who approach it. Grave men, who elsewhere feared no one, and were wont to drink with Princes and deal familiarly, have related that when they came to ask something of Philip II king of Spain, and the king fixed his eyes upon them with royal gravity, they were dismayed and fell dumb, and though the king kindly invited them to state their business, yet they could not utter a word.
11. And God changed the king’s spirit into mildness.
—“He changed,” both by the pitiable sight of the queen collapsing, and by an inward instinct and impulse by which he bent him to compassion, so as to change anger into mildness and caresses. “The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, whithersoever he will he shall turn it,” Proverbs xxi, 1; especially because Ahasuerus saw that Esther had not approached from contempt, as he thought, but feared and revered him greatly (for this kings seek), and therefore from reverence and trembling had fallen and suffered a swoon.
Verses 12, 13. What ails thee, Esther? I am thy brother.
“Brother,” that is, husband who love thee not as husband and lord, but as brother, companion and equal.