Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Ahasuerus exalts Haman and orders him to be worshipped by all. Mordecai refuses to do this. Hence Haman obtains from Ahasuerus a decree that he himself and all the Jews be killed on an appointed day.
Vulgate Text: Esther 3:1-15
1. After these things King Ahasuerus exalted Haman the son of Hammedatha, who was of the race of Agag; and he set his throne above all the princes he had. 2. And all the king's servants who were at the gates of the palace bent their knees and worshipped Haman; for so the emperor had commanded them: Mordecai alone did not bend his knee, nor worship him. 3. The king's servants who presided at the gates of the palace said to him: Why do you not observe the king's command like the rest? 4. And when they said this repeatedly, and he would not listen, they reported it to Haman, wishing to know whether he would persist in his resolve: for he had told them he was a Jew. 5. When Haman heard this, and proved by experience that Mordecai did not bend his knee to him nor worship him, he was exceedingly angry, 6. and he considered it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone: for he had heard that Mordecai was of the Jewish nation, and he wished all the more to destroy the entire nation of the Jews who were in the kingdom of Ahasuerus. 7. In the first month (whose name is Nisan), in the twelfth year of the reign of Ahasuerus, a lot was cast into an urn, which in Hebrew is called pur, before Haman, to determine on what day and in what month the nation of the Jews should be killed: and the twelfth month, which is called Adar, came out. 8. And Haman said to King Ahasuerus: There is a people scattered through all the provinces of your kingdom, and separated from one another, using new laws and ceremonies, and moreover despising the king's decrees. And you know very well that it is not expedient for your kingdom that they grow insolent through license. 9. If it please you, decree that they perish, and I will pay ten thousand talents into the treasuries of your treasury. 10. So the king took the ring he used from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha, of the race of Agag, the enemy of the Jews, 11. and said to him: The silver which you promise, let it be yours; as for the people, do with them as you please. 12. And the king's scribes were summoned in the first month, Nisan, on the thirteenth day of that month: and it was written, as Haman had commanded, to all the king's satraps, and the judges of the provinces and of the diverse nations, so that each nation could read and understand according to the variety of languages, in the name of King Ahasuerus: and the letters were sealed with his ring, 13. and sent by the king's couriers to all the provinces, to kill and destroy all the Jews, from children to the aged, little ones and women, in a single day, that is the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is called Adar, and to plunder their goods. 14. And the sum of the letters was this, that all the provinces should know, and prepare themselves for the appointed day. 15. The couriers who were sent hastened to carry out the king's command. And immediately the edict was posted in Susa, while the king and Haman celebrated a banquet, and all the Jews who were in the city wept.
Verse 1: Ahasuerus Exalted Haman, of the Race of Agag
1. AFTER THESE THINGS KING AHASUERUS EXALTED HAMAN THE SON OF HAMMEDATHA, WHO WAS OF THE RACE OF AGAG. Haman was therefore an Amalekite of the royal line; for Agag was the king of Amalek, whom Samuel ordered to be killed, 1 Samuel 15. So Josephus, Lyranus, Sanchez, and others.
You will object: In chapter 16, verses 10 and 14, Haman is said to have been Macedonian in mind and race, and a stranger to the blood of the Persians, and to have attempted to transfer the kingdom from the Persians to the Macedonians. I answer that he was an Amalekite by descent, but a Macedonian by country; namely, his parents were Amalekites; but when the Amalekites were partly slain by Saul and partly by Nebuchadnezzar, Haman's parents fled to other nations, and through wanderings and misfortunes came to Macedonia, and there settled and begot Haman.
The manuscript Chaldee adds that Haman had been a slave, and therefore when elevated by Ahasuerus became puffed up and intolerable. For as it is said in Proverbs 30:21: "The earth is moved by three things, and the fourth it cannot bear: a slave when he reigns," etc. The Chaldee adds that Haman was the one who in chapter 1, verse 14, is called Memucan, and who persuaded Ahasuerus to divorce Vashti, and had substituted his own daughter in her place; but such a great and foul flux of the bowels befell his daughter that she drove everyone away with her stench. Furthermore, that Haman went up to Jerusalem to impede the building of the temple, and many similar things, which seem to be the inventions and fictions of the Rabbis.
Verse 2: They Bent Their Knees and Worshipped Haman
2. AND ALL THE KING'S SERVANTS, ETC., BENT THEIR KNEES AND WORSHIPPED HAMAN; FOR SO THE EMPEROR HAD COMMANDED THEM. See here how greatly Ahasuerus exalted Haman, in that he ordered him to be worshipped as if he were some god or deity. For the kings of Persia wished to be worshipped as gods and deities. Hence just as Jupiter in heaven is said to create lesser gods, so Ahasuerus made Haman like a lesser god on earth, and nearest to himself, and therefore to be worshipped by all: so Serarius, of whom more presently.
MORDECAI ALONE DID NOT BEND HIS KNEE, NOR WORSHIP HIM. Why did Mordecai refuse to bend his knee before Haman? The manuscript Chaldee answers, first, on account of the indignity of the thing, because Haman had been Mordecai's slave; but this is uncertain and scarcely probable, and is not sufficient; indeed Mordecai himself refutes this, saying in chapter 13, verse 13: "I was prepared to kiss the prints of his feet."
Second, the Jews give the reason that Haman wore images of idols painted on his garment; but this is equally uncertain and improbable.
Third, Cajetan offers another reason, namely that Haman was an Amalekite of the race of Agag: and God had commanded the Hebrews to destroy the Amalekites, Deuteronomy 25. But that hatred pertained to the destruction of the Amalekite nation, not to the refusal of honor to one individual Haman in Persia, at such great peril to Mordecai and the Hebrews.
Fourth, the same Cajetan says: The Jews, he says, bent one knee to a prince, both to God; but Haman wished both knees bent to himself, and therefore Mordecai refused. But this seems false and invented; for Abraham, bending both knees, indeed prostrating himself on the ground, worshipped the sons of Heth, as I noted at Genesis 23:7.
Fifth, Gabriel Vasquez, in On Adoration, book 1, disputation 5, chapter 3, thinks that Mordecai refused to genuflect and worship Haman because he himself daily genuflected and worshipped God; because this daily genuflection was reserved by the custom of the Jews. But Haman, entering the royal court daily, daily demanded this genuflection from Mordecai and the courtiers. Yet Mordecai did not wish to genuflect and worship Haman even once. For if it had been permissible once, it would certainly have been permissible daily.
I say therefore: The true reason is given by Mordecai himself, chapter 13, verse 14, saying: "But I feared lest I should transfer the honor of my God to a man, and lest I should worship anyone except my God." Josephus teaches the same, book 11, chapter 6. For, as Sulpicius Severus rightly says, book 2, Ahasuerus had made Haman his equal, and therefore had ordered him to be properly worshipped as God. For the kings of Persia demanded divine honor and adoration due to God from their subjects, as is clear from Justin book 6, Herodotus book 7, where he says the Lacedæmonians, though commanded, refused to worship Xerxes, because he was a Persian. In Plutarch's Life of Artabanus: "We have," they say, "the most beautiful law of honoring the king and worshipping the image of God who preserves all things." Quintus Curtius of Darius: "The king," he says, "riding shortly before in his chariot, was worshipped by his own people with divine honors." Hence Aeschylus said the Persians hold their kings in the place of gods. Xenophon, in his oration On Agesilaus, asserts the same of the Persians, as do Aristotle, book 3 of Rhetoric, Isocrates in the Panegyric, Strabo, book 10, Heliodorus, books 7 and 9, Seneca, book 3 of On Benefits, chapter 12, Herodian, book 1, and Lampridius in the Life of Alexander Severus, so that there can be no doubt on this matter. Hence, as Curtius testifies, book 8, when Cleo of Sicily was urging Alexander to assume a divine title, he adduced the example of the Persians, whom Alexander himself had previously conquered; for he said: "The Persians worship their kings among the gods, not only piously but also prudently; for the majesty of the empire is the protection of their safety." And when the Macedonians could not bear the arrogance of Alexander, who had already decreed that he was to be numbered among the gods, and some of them had conspired to kill him, one of them who was caught used as his excuse that Alexander's arrogance seemed intolerable. That man was Hermolaus. "The dress and discipline of the Persians," he said, "delight you, you hate the customs of your fathers; therefore we wished to kill the king of the Persians, not of the Macedonians, and we pursue you as a deserter by the right of war. You wished the Macedonians to bow their knees to you and venerate you as a god. You reject Philip your father, and if any god were held before Jupiter, you would disdain even Jupiter. Do you wonder that free men cannot endure your arrogance?"
So Curtius. In a similar way Nebuchadnezzar wished to be worshipped as God in his statue, and when three companions of Daniel refused, they were cast into a fiery furnace by him, but were preserved unharmed by God, Daniel chapter 3. And another Nebuchadnezzar ordered Holofernes to take away all the gods everywhere, so that he alone might be worshipped as God, Judith 3:13.
So Virgil sings of Augustus Caesar, Eclogue 1:
For he will always be a god to me; a tender lamb from our folds will often stain his altar.
So Caius Caligula wished to be worshipped as a god; and Domitian, to whom Martial, flattering him, says:
The edict of our Lord and God.
Hence the Persian mode of worship was performed with this rite, which smacked of divinity. For worshippers genuflected, and falling forward prostrate on the ground struck the earth with their foreheads and kissed the ground, as Curtius testifies, books 5 and 8, and Valerius Maximus, book 7, chapter 3, Josephus, Antiquities 20, chapter 3, and Martial, book 10, Epigram 72, who therefore censure and mock it as too proud and savoring of divinity. See on the rite of adoration of the kings of Persia, Brissonius, book 1 of On the Kingdom of the Persians, page 10 and following, where he also relates that Pelopidas and other Greeks refused to worship Artaxerxes with this rite; indeed, the Athenians punished Themagoras with death because he had worshipped Darius in this manner, as Valerius Maximus reports, book 6.
You will object: Mordecai could have dissembled the intention of Haman, and simply worshipped him with civil and political worship, namely bent his knee to him and prostrated himself on the ground before him as before a prince, not as before a god; for these external gestures are indifferent, and are distinguished by the intention of the one performing them, so that if he has the intention of truly worshipping, they are considered gestures of adoration and latria; but if he intends only to honor, they are considered gestures of civil reverence and honor; so Salianus, who therefore thinks that Mordecai, Ezra, and Nehemiah sometimes showed these gestures of worship to the kings of Persia, not as to gods, but as to princes. I answer that he could not do this, because the king had publicly ordered him to be worshipped as God, and Haman wished to be worshipped as such; and he expressly demanded it, as is gathered from chapters 13 and 14. Therefore if Mordecai had complied with him, he would have been judged by all to be worshipping Haman as a deity, as the others worshipped him. Add that, if he had done this, he would have given grave scandal to all the Jews, especially at that time when the Jews, living among idolaters, were guarding against every appearance of idolatry, even the slightest. Hence Ezra, Nehemiah, Mordecai, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the others who were at the court of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, are never read to have worshipped; but, as Josephus says, having received great benefits from these kings, they thanked them and worshipped God as the first author of these benefits. It was different with Judith, who in chapter 10, verse 20, with a political genuflection worshipped Holofernes as a prince, not as God; because Holofernes professed that he was not God, but only Nebuchadnezzar was.
Some add that Mordecai was of a more delicate, more scrupulous, more strict conscience, so that he would not admit even the slightest shadow of idolatry, or any sign by which even the least worship of God might seem to be harmed and one's neighbor offended. Hence he himself says in chapter 13, verse 14: "I feared lest I should transfer the honor of my God to a man."
Verse 4: He Had Told Them He Was a Jew
4. For he had told them he was a Jew, and therefore was forbidden by his Jewish religion and law to worship any man, but only God, whereas the Persians and other gentiles worshipped even men, namely their kings, as gods. It is likely that Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Zerubbabel, and the other Hebrews who frequented their courts, indeed held honorable offices, gave the same answer to Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, namely that they were Jews, who were not permitted to worship anyone other than God, and therefore the kings themselves did not exact from these Jews the Persian form of worship, but only political and civil worship, which is customarily given to princes as men. Add that these kings exacted that Persian worship only in public, when they presented themselves to the people as deities to be venerated; for in private, from their courtiers and chamberlains with whom they dealt familiarly every day, they did not demand it, being content with common honor and reverence. For to employ the Persian form of worship at every conversation and attendance would have been an intolerable burden, and morally impossible.
Verse 6: To Destroy the Entire Nation of the Jews
6. AND HE WISHED ALL THE MORE TO DESTROY THE ENTIRE NATION OF THE JEWS WHO WERE IN THE KINGDOM OF AHASUERUS. The word "more" indicates that Haman had already wished to destroy Mordecai and the Jews, because Mordecai had accused his two eunuch friends and had them crucified, as I said at chapter 2, verse 21. But now, with another injury added, and his contempt, as he deemed it, confirmed in his resolve, he wished all the more to exterminate them. From this is clear, first, the pride and cruelty of Haman, who on account of one Mordecai wished to kill all the Jews who were entirely innocent: Mordecai alone, O Haman, offended you; pursue him alone, then, if you wish: why do you pour out your wrath upon all the Jews, who did not offend you? Second, the great dignity of Mordecai, in that on his account Haman resolved to destroy the entire Jewish nation; because Mordecai was their leader, and as it were their captain and prince, so that they were governed by him, and what he did, the rest did, and followed his example.
Verse 7: A Lot Was Cast into an Urn, Called Pur
7. A LOT WAS CAST INTO AN URN, WHICH IN HEBREW IS CALLED PUR, BEFORE HAMAN, TO DETERMINE ON WHAT DAY AND IN WHAT MONTH THE NATION OF THE JEWS SHOULD BE KILLED. For "lot" the Hebrew has גורל goral. Hence Lyranus, Cajetan, Marinus, and others think that phur is a Persian word, and goral a Hebrew one: but that the Hebrews adopted the word phur from the Persians in this passage, and therefore called this Persian lot by their name phur. Hence the Hebrew reads: Phur was cast; it is goral, that is, the lot. Hence phur is found nowhere in the Bible except in this book of Esther. For in the Psalms, Proverbs, and other books, for "lot" the Hebrew always has goral, not phur.
Some, however, think that phur is also a Hebrew word, from the root phur, that is, to fall, because the lot falls and drops into the urn.
Moreover, from phur, that is, lot, the festival was called by the Hebrews Purim, at which they gave thanks to God for having delivered them from the malicious lot of extermination cast by Haman. Now Haman employed the lot here out of the superstition of the Gentiles, who used lots as a kind of divination to investigate hidden and dangerous matters, as was done in Jonah chapter 1. For, as St. Augustine says on Psalm 30: "A lot is a thing which in human doubt indicates the divine will." Hence Cicero, book 1 of On Divination, calls them lots which are based on prophecy. Virgil, Aeneid book 4:
The Lycian lots bade him seek Italy,
That is, oracles. Ovid, Metamorphoses book 1:
It pleased them to pray to the heavenly Deity, and to seek help through sacred lots.
But this superstition deceived Haman; for it delayed the time of the slaughter of the Jews, and thus gave Esther time to plead against the slaughter. For if he had carried out the matter immediately upon receiving authority from the king, he would have killed all the Jews. His delay and casting of lots was therefore imprudent: namely, God had confounded his cruel plan. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Haman cast the lot, so that from it, as from a divination and oracle, he might learn which day would be suitable for the slaughter of the Jews, and lucky and fortunate for himself, lest he should incur any danger to his life or that of his people from the Jews defending themselves.
Verse 9: Decree That They Perish; Ten Thousand Talents
9. IF IT PLEASE YOU, DECREE THAT THEY PERISH, AND I WILL PAY TEN THOUSAND TALENTS (of silver, as the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Septuagint have) INTO THE TREASURIES OF YOUR TREASURY, that is, five million gold coins, if Attic talents are understood here, as seems the case; but if Hebrew talents, the sum will be twice as great, namely ten million gold coins. This is an enormous amount, but it was easy for Haman to collect it from the goods of the Jews, which had already been destined by him for plunder and pillage. Haman offered this to Darius because he knew that Darius, being greedy for gold, had imposed great tributes on his subjects, as I said at chapter 2, verse 18. Therefore, lest the king complain that through the slaughter of the Jews he would lose the tributes they used to pay, Haman promises him that he will make up this loss with ten millions: and if the king honorably refused this payment, as in fact he did refuse it, Haman planned to convert it to his own use, so that he might become formidable to the entire kingdom and to Darius himself, and when the opportunity arose, levy an army and claim it for himself. But God anticipated his wicked and proud plans, and turned and directed them back upon his own head.
Verse 10: The King Took the Ring and Gave It to Haman
10. SO THE KING TOOK THE RING HE USED (for sealing his decrees and royal letters), AND GAVE IT TO HAMAN, so that he might write the decree about destroying the Jews in whatever form and manner he wished, and seal it with the royal ring, as if it came from the king, namely so that those reading it on the appointed day would slay all the Jews, thinking the king wished and commanded this. Hence Alexander the Great, having conquered Darius, when he wrote to the Asians, sealed his letters with the ring he had taken from Darius; signifying thereby that he was now king of Asia. The same Alexander, when dying, gave his ring to Perdiccas, and by this very act designated him king, as Curtius testifies, books 6 and the last, and Justin, book 17.
Verse 13: From Children to the Aged, Little Ones and Women
13. FROM CHILDREN TO THE AGED, LITTLE ONES AND WOMEN. This was the barbarous cruelty of Haman, by which he destined for death absolutely all the Jews, even innocent women and children, lest any of them, growing to manhood, should avenge this slaughter of his nation and seek Haman's head. The Japanese and other barbarians do the same.
Verse 15: The Couriers Hastened
15. THE COURIERS HASTENED, whom, as Herodotus testifies, book 8, Cyrus had established as relay riders, who at fixed places and times would exchange exhausted horses and riders for fresh ones, and thus carry royal letters faster than cranes fly, says Xenophon. Indeed, these riders could compel country people to give up their better horses. In Persian these couriers were called Angari. Hence 'to press into service' (angariare) means the same as 'to compel,' Matthew 5:41. Scaliger conjectures that Angels (messengers) got their name from Angari (with the letter r changed to l, as often happens), that is, messengers.