Commentaria in Esther
Chapter the Second. Synopsis of the chapter
Ahasuerus repudiates Vasthi, and takes Esther as queen in her place; through her Mordecai reveals to Ahasuerus the conspiracy of two courtiers against the king, whom Ahasuerus crucifies, and he orders Mordecai’s fidelity to be entered in the Annals.
1. These things being so done, after the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vasthi, and what she had done, and what she had suffered; 2. and the king’s servants and his officers said: Let young women be sought for the king, virgins and beautiful, 3. and let persons be sent to see through all the provinces beautiful young women and virgins, and bring them to the city of Susan, and deliver them into the house of the women, under the hand of Egeus the eunuch, who is the overseer and keeper of the king’s women: and let them receive women’s ornaments, and other things necessary for their use. 4. And whosoever among them all shall please the king’s eyes, let her be queen instead of Vasthi. The word pleased the king: and he commanded it to be done as they had suggested. 5. There was a Jew in the city of Susan, whose name was Mardochai, the son of Jair, the son of Semei, the son of Cis, of the stock of Jemini, 6. who had been carried away from Jerusalem at the time that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon carried away Jechonias king of Juda, 7. and he had brought up his brother’s daughter Edissa, who by another name was called Esther, and she had lost both her parents: exceedingly fair, and of a beautiful countenance. And her father and mother being dead, Mardochai adopted her for his daughter. 8. And when the king’s ordinance was noised abroad, and according to his commandment many beautiful virgins were brought to Susan, and delivered to Egeus the eunuch, Esther also among the rest of the maidens was delivered to him, to be kept in the number of the women. 9. And she pleased him, and found favour in his sight. And he commanded the eunuch to hasten the women’s ornaments, and to deliver her her part, and seven of the most beautiful maidens of the king’s house, and to adorn and set off both her and her maids. 10. And she would not tell him her people nor her country: for Mardochai had charged her to say nothing at all about this; 11. and he walked every day before the porch of the house, in which the chosen virgins were kept, taking care of Esther’s welfare, and desirous to know what would befall her. 12. Now when every maiden’s turn came in order to go in to the king, after all had been done for their womanly adornment, the twelfth month was turning; so that for six months they were anointed with oil of myrrh, and for the other six used certain perfumes and spices. 13. And going in to the king, whatever they asked for their adornment they received, and as it pleased them, being arrayed, they passed from the women’s dining-room to the king’s chamber. 14. And she that had gone in at evening came out in the morning, and from thence was conducted to the second house, which was under the hand of Susagazi the eunuch, who had charge over the king’s concubines: nor had she power to return to the king any more, unless the king desired it, and had commanded her to come by name. 15. And as the time came about in order, the day was at hand when Esther the daughter of Abihail the brother of Mardochai, whom he had adopted for his daughter, was to go in to the king. But she sought not women’s ornaments, but whatsoever Egeus the eunuch, the keeper of the virgins, would, he gave her for her adornment. For she was exceedingly beautiful, and her incredible beauty made her appear agreeable and lovely in the eyes of all. 16. So she was brought to the chamber of king Ahasuerus in the tenth month, which is called Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17. And the king loved her more than all the women, and she had favour and kindness before him above all the women, and he set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen in the place of Vasthi. 18. And he commanded a magnificent feast to be prepared for all the princes and for his servants, for the wedding and marriage of Esther. And he gave rest to all the provinces, and bestowed gifts according to princely magnificence. 19. And when virgins were sought the second time, and gathered together, Mardochai stayed at the king’s gate: 20. and Esther had not yet declared her country and people, according to his commandment. For whatsoever he commanded, Esther observed: and she did all things in the same manner as she was wont at the time when he brought her up a little one. 21. At that time, therefore, when Mardochai stayed at the king’s gate, Bagathan and Thares, two eunuchs of the king, who were porters, and presided in the first entry of the palace, were angry, and designed to rise up against the king, and to kill him. 22. And Mardochai was not ignorant of it, and immediately gave notice to queen Esther, and she to the king, in the name of Mardochai who had told her. 23. It was inquired into, and found out: and both of them were hanged on a gibbet. And it was set down in the histories, and recorded in the chronicles before the king.
1. And he remembered (so the Hebrew; the Septuagint, “she remembered,” that is, Vasthi) Vasthi,—as the Chaldee and the Romans have it. Wrongly therefore do some read: namely, that he remembered that she, so beautiful and beloved, had been repudiated.
Hence grief and sadness came upon the king’s mind, both on his own account and on account of Vasthi, whom he loved dearly; and to dispel this sorrow the king’s ministers suggest that he take care to seek a more beautiful wife through the whole kingdom, lest he revoke the decree of repudiation and thereby lose something of royal constancy and authority; as a nail is driven out by a nail, so love is driven out by love.
And what she had suffered,—that is, as the Hebrew has it, what sentence had been passed upon her, namely of repudiation and deprivation of the kingdom.
3. Egeus the eunuch.—“Egeus” alludes to Vago, or Bugous, which in Persian signifies eunuch. See what is said on Judith xii, 10. Furthermore, eunuchs were of old the king’s intimates and the princes of the court, who saw the king’s face and were most familiar with him, as is plain from chapter i, verse 10, where the Chaldee translates eunuchs as satraps.
5. There was a Jew in the city of Susan, whose name was Mardochai.—For although Mardochai had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon under Cyrus with Zorobabel and the High Priest Jesus, nay, was one of the chiefs and leaders of those returning, as is plain from book I of Esdras, chapter ii, verse 2, yet he soon returned from Jerusalem to Susa, because he was “a great man, and among the first of the king’s court,” as is said in chapter xi, verse 4.
For he was “at the king’s gate,” as his doorkeeper, chamberlain, and guard of his person. For that the king’s doorkeepers were the king’s guards, Xenophon and Herodotus testify. Hence Josephus Ben Gorion says that Mardochai was one of the tribe of the Partemim, that is, the princes of the court and palatines, of whom verse 3. So Daniel, for his probity and prophecy, was set by Nabuchodonosor over the whole of Babylon; Tobias, a captive, for his fidelity was steward of Salmanasar, Tobias chapter i; so virtue exalted the ancient Jews, otherwise hated by the Gentiles.
Furthermore “Mardochai” in Hebrew is the same as myrrh, or contrite bitterness.
and stock of Den by aphaeresis: the same as myrrh, or pure myrrh, or crushed myrrh, or teaching contrition, or the purest myrrh, says Serarius. Likewise myrrh of my contritions, or of my poverties, or of my poor (dachenim is poor), or myrrh of my purities, or of my just ones; for ducha in Syriac is to cleanse, purify, justify. All this Pagninus has in the Hebrew Names, and all fits Mardochai, who, appointed by Aman with the Hebrews for death, suffered bitterness; but through Esther all gall was changed into honey, bitterness into sweetness, sadness into joy.