Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Esther enters unsummoned to Ahasuerus, exposing herself to mortal danger, but being kindly received by him, she invites him with Haman once and again to a banquet: meanwhile Haman prepares a cross for Mordecai (more truly for himself).
Vulgate Text: Esther 5:1-14
1. And on the third day Esther put on her royal garments, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, which was opposite the king's hall: and he sat upon his throne in the audience chamber of the palace, opposite the door of the house. 2. And when he saw Queen Esther standing, she pleased his eyes, and he extended toward her the golden scepter that he held in his hand. And she approached and kissed the tip of his scepter. 3. And the king said to her: What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even if you should ask for half of my kingdom, it shall be given to you. 4. But she replied: If it please the king, I beg that you come to me today, and Haman with you, to the banquet that I have prepared. 5. And immediately the king said: Call Haman quickly, that he may obey Esther's will. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that the queen had prepared for them. 6. And the king said to her, after he had drunk wine abundantly: What do you ask that it may be given to you? And what do you request? Even if you should ask for half of my kingdom, you shall obtain it. 7. To whom Esther replied: My petition and request is this: 8. If I have found grace in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to give me what I ask and to fulfill my petition: let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I have prepared for them, and tomorrow I will reveal my wish to the king. 9. So Haman went out that day joyful and merry. And when he saw Mordecai sitting before the gates of the palace, and that he not only had not risen for him, but had not even moved from his seat, he was greatly indignant; 10. and concealing his anger, he returned to his house and called together his friends and Zeresh his wife. 11. And he set before them the greatness of his wealth, and the multitude of his children, and how the king had elevated him in glory above all his princes and servants. 12. And after this he said: Queen Esther also invited no one else to the banquet with the king except me; and tomorrow also I shall dine with the king at her table. 13. And though I have all these things, I consider that I have nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting before the royal gates. 14. And Zeresh his wife and his other friends answered him: Command that a lofty beam be prepared, having a height of fifty cubits, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged upon it, and so you will go joyful with the king to the banquet. The counsel pleased him, and he ordered the lofty cross to be prepared.
Verse 1: She Stood in the Inner Court
1. SHE STOOD IN THE INNER COURT OF THE KING'S HOUSE, OPPOSITE THE KING'S HALL. The basilica here means the royal hall; namely the king's innermost chamber, surrounded by precious tapestries, where the golden throne stood, upon which the king sat, gleaming with gold and gems, holding a golden scepter in his hand. For basilica in Greek means the king's house; for basileus means king. It is also called 'the audience chamber of the palace'; so from Dio, Philostratus, Apuleius, and Aeschylus, according to Serarius. For in it the princes and courtiers stood around the king. Therefore Esther did not enter this innermost chamber of the king, but the inner court adjacent to it, so that she could be seen by the king sitting in his innermost chamber through the door. For the king was sitting 'opposite the door of the house.'
Verse 2: Queen Esther Pleased His Eyes
2. AND WHEN HE SAW QUEEN ESTHER STANDING, SHE PLEASED HIS EYES. Here must be supplied and prefixed from chapter 15, verse 9, that the king first looked at Esther with furious and flashing eyes and terrified her, because she had approached him unsummoned: and that Esther, struck with fear, fainted once and again and collapsed, then the king ran to her, and extending his scepter toward her, caressed her and restored her to herself, about which we shall speak in chapter 15.
AND HE EXTENDED TOWARD HER THE GOLDEN SCEPTER, namely the golden scepter that he held in his hand, by this extension signifying his clemency and benevolence toward her, so that she might safely approach him unsummoned, contrary to the law.
Allegorically, the golden scepter is the Blessed Virgin, through whom God, offended by the whole human race, was reconciled to it, about whom Balaam prophesied, Numbers chapter 24, toward the end, saying: 'A star shall rise (the Blessed Virgin, who is the true Esther, and star) out of Jacob, and a scepter shall spring up from Israel, and shall strike the leaders of Moab, and shall lay waste all the children of Seth.' 'This is,' says Blessed Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Assumption, 'that scepter by which the assaults of opposing demons are blunted, the rod of Aaron through which wonders are wrought. And by the staff is understood the Cross, by which not only was that insatiable murderer beaten, but slain, who feeds and nourishes himself on the deaths of men. In the Virgin the scepter, and in the staff the Cross, is contained the hope and consolation of the wretched, as the sublime Prophet declares with a clear voice: Your rod, he says, and your staff, they have comforted me.'
Verse 6: Even Half of My Kingdom
6. EVEN IF YOU SHOULD ASK FOR HALF OF MY KINGDOM, YOU SHALL OBTAIN IT. More generous than Ahasuerus was God toward the Blessed Virgin, to whom He granted the entire realm of His kingdom, that is, the rule of heaven. Whence the Angels sang to her as to their queen at Rome at the Castle of Sant'Angelo: 'Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia,' as I have related more fully elsewhere. For Christ can deny nothing to her as to His mother: wherefore the greatest of God's benefits to mankind after the incarnate Word is the Blessed Virgin; for He gave her to us so that through her we might obtain all things from Him, so that she might open to us all the treasures of clemency, omnipotence, and divinity, and bestow all the graces hidden in them through her Son.
Verse 8: Let the King and Haman Come to the Banquet
8. LET THE KING AND HAMAN COME TO THE BANQUET WHICH I HAVE PREPARED FOR THEM. The Greek text adds that Esther gave a reason for the invitation, saying: 'My day is remarkable today'; as if to say: Today is a feast day for me, and therefore there should be rejoicing and a banquet prepared; I therefore invite the king, that he may grace it with his presence. Prudently Esther invited the king a second time to a banquet, so that at it she might present to the king her petition for the salvation of the Jews. First, so that she might gradually kindle the king more to love for her, to such a degree that he could deny her nothing. For it was an arduous and very difficult thing to ask the king to revoke his edict for the slaughter of the Jews, already issued and promulgated, contrary to the custom of the kings of Persia and Media. Second, because she did not dare to ask this publicly amid such a great crowd of attending nobles, since they had said that a law once enacted according to the custom of kings could not be revoked. Therefore she asked and obtained the same thing from the king secretly at the banquet; secretly revealing that she was a Jewess, which to do publicly before the princes would have been dangerous. Third, she invited only Haman with the king, to bring him into the envy and hatred of the other Satraps, says Lyra. Fourth, because she knew that at a banquet the king, cheered by more generous drink, would be more liberal in granting requests. So even now prudent men, when they seek something from a rather harsh person, do not ask in the morning, when from fasting the mind and face are more austere, but after dinner and a banquet, when they have made him merry with wine, they ask and obtain. Some add that it was the custom of the kings of Persia to deny nothing to anyone at a banquet. Certainly Herodotus in his ninth book writes that among the Persians it was unlawful for the king to refuse anything at the banquet which he used to hold annually on the day he had been made king.
Verse 9: Mordecai Sitting Before the Palace Gates
9. AND WHEN HE SAW MORDECAI SITTING BEFORE THE GATES OF THE PALACE, AND THAT HE HAD NOT ONLY NOT RISEN FOR HIM, BUT HAD NOT EVEN MOVED FROM HIS SEAT, HE WAS GREATLY INDIGNANT. This was a mark of Mordecai's great constancy, that he did not even rise for Haman, his most criminal enemy who was plotting destruction for the entire Jewish nation, in order to show his trust in God, and by that very act to reproach Haman for his pride and cruelty.
Verse 13: Nothing Satisfies Me While I See Mordecai
13. AND THOUGH I HAVE ALL THESE THINGS, I CONSIDER THAT I HAVE NOTHING SO LONG AS I SEE MORDECAI. Therefore Mordecai torments you more, O Haman, than you torment him: you therefore have nothing without Mordecai, because Mordecai has everything, and therefore you have nothing. Rightly exclaims St. Bernard, in book I of De consideratione: 'Ambition, the cross of the ambitious, how do you torment all and please all? Nothing tortures more bitterly, nothing disturbs more annoyingly, yet nothing among wretched mortals is more celebrated than its pursuits,' and in sermon IV On the Ascension: 'This is the mountain which the Angel ascended, and became the devil.' Playfully St. Anselm, in his book On Similitudes, chapter 77, compares honor to a butterfly: 'So,' he says, 'act those who pursue the honors of this world, like boys who chase a butterfly. For butterflies, when they fly, never hold a straight path: but flit here and there; when they seem to settle somewhere, they do not remain there long. And the boys following them, wanting to catch them, hasten to run after them, and because they look not at their feet but at the butterflies, they sometimes fall into a pit. Often when they approach cautiously and try to seize them, the butterflies fly away: when they do catch them, they exult over nothing, as if they had gained something great. Those who pursue the honors of this world act similarly. For the honors of this world never keep a fixed course, but flit from one to another by capricious byways.'
Verse 14: The Lofty Cross Prepared
14. HE ORDERED THE LOFTY CROSS TO BE PREPARED. But the cross you prepared for Mordecai, O Haman, you fixed for yourself. For on it you will soon be hanged, according to Sirach chapter 27, verse 29: 'He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who sets a stone for his neighbor will stumble on it; and he who lays a snare for others will perish in it.' See what was said there.
Moreover he ordered a cross to be prepared rather than a pyre, sword, or other form of torture, because the cross was customary among the Persians, and was the most ignominious. Another reason from the Rabbis is given by the Chaldean Manuscript, which hear: 'Zeresh his wife said to Haman her husband: You cannot cast Mordecai into fire, because Abraham his father was delivered from it. You cannot drown him in water, because Moses and the children of Israel were delivered from it. You cannot throw him into a den of lions, because Daniel the Prophet was delivered from it. Nevertheless let them make a gallows fifty cubits high, and in the morning tell the King to have Mordecai hanged upon it; because in this none of them has ever been tested, that he should be delivered on a wooden gallows.' But these are the usual fabrications of the Rabbinic mind.