Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Ahasuerus, having renewed the memory of the conspiracy against him detected through Mordecai, orders him to be honored with royal honors, and this through Haman himself, his sworn enemy.
Vulgate Text: Esther 6:1-14
1. That night the king passed sleepless, and ordered the histories and annals of former times to be brought to him. And when they were read in his presence, 2. they came to the passage where it was written how Mordecai had reported the plot of Bigthan and Teresh the eunuchs, who had sought to assassinate King Ahasuerus. 3. When the king heard this, he said: What honor and reward has Mordecai received for this loyalty? His servants and attendants said to him: He received no reward at all. 4. And immediately the king said: Who is in the court? Now Haman had entered the inner court of the royal house, to suggest to the king that he should order Mordecai to be hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for him. 5. The servants answered: Haman stands in the court. And the king said: Let him enter. 6. And when he had entered, the king said to him: What ought to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor? Now Haman, thinking in his heart and reckoning that the king wished to honor no one but himself, 7. answered: The man whom the king wishes to honor, 8. ought to be clothed in royal garments, and set upon the horse that the king rides, and receive the royal diadem upon his head, 9. and the first of the royal princes and nobles should hold his horse, and walking through the city square should cry out and say: Thus shall he be honored whom the king wishes to honor. 10. And the king said to him: Make haste, and taking the robe and horse, do as you have said to Mordecai the Jew, who sits before the gates of the palace. Take care that you omit nothing of what you have said. 11. So Haman took the robe and horse, and having clothed Mordecai, he led him through the city square mounted on the horse, and cried out: This honor is he worthy of, whom the king wishes to honor. 12. And Mordecai returned to the gate of the palace; and Haman hastened to go to his house, mourning and with his head covered; 13. and he told Zeresh his wife and his friends all that had happened to him. To whom his wise counselors and his wife answered: If Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews, before whom you have begun to fall, you will not be able to resist him, but you will fall before him. 14. While they were still speaking, the king's eunuchs came and quickly compelled him to go to the banquet that the queen had prepared.
Verse 1: That Night the King Passed Sleepless
1. THAT NIGHT THE KING PASSED SLEEPLESS. With God through an Angel arranging and directing this, so that Ahasuerus would read his annals, and thereby remember the benefit rendered to him by Mordecai, and honor him: at the same time to teach morally by the example of Ahasuerus that kings and princes should not snore the whole night in bed, but keep vigil over the greatest public affairs of the state, and beseech God for them. Well-known is that saying of Homer: 'It is not fitting for a man of counsel to sleep the whole night through.'
'Indeed,' says Brisonius, in book I of De Regno Persarum, 'that institution, which can never be sufficiently praised, flourished among the Persians, that, as Plutarch relates in his book To an Uneducated Prince, every day one of the chamberlains appointed for this purpose, entering the king's chamber in the morning, would cry: Rise, O King, and attend to the affairs that Mesoromasdes wished you to attend to.' Now 'Mesoromasdes,' as Laertius says at the beginning, is the Sun, which they called Mithras. Constantine the Great, says Eusebius, in book IV of his Life, chapter 13, 'stirring up his own mind with a kind of inspiration and impulse of divine things, often spent whole nights without sleep, and when leisure permitted, wrote orations, and this even to the very end of his old age.'
Ferrandus the Carthusian, in his book addressed to Regimus, commends this precept to the Duke in Rule 5: 'Let free access be open to the petitions of priests, let prayer be frequent, let the study of reading, although occupations flood in from every side, blaze with the fire of spiritual desire, with tepidity removed.' I knew an eminent Prelate who devoted the day to business and governance, and the night to prayer and study.
AND HE ORDERED THE HISTORIES AND ANNALS TO BE BROUGHT TO HIM. This is a praiseworthy quality in a king, to review and reread his acts, and if anything has been omitted, especially in rewarding those who have deserved well, to supply it. So the Emperor Alexander Severus, as Lampridius testifies, lest anything remain unrewarded, carefully recorded in writing whatever gifts he had bestowed. If anyone had asked nothing or very little from him, he would address him, saying: 'What is it that you ask nothing? Do you want me to become your debtor? Ask, lest as a private citizen you complain about me.' Moreover, that the benefits conferred upon the kings of Persia were carefully recorded and preserved in the memory of the Annals and Diaries, Herodotus testifies in book IV, speaking of Darius (who is our Ahasuerus) the son of Hystaspes reviewing them. And Thucydides, in book 1, relates that Xerxes the son of Darius said to Pausanias: 'Your benefit will always be inscribed in our house.' Indeed the kings of Persia, as Xenophon teaches in book VIII of the Cyropaedia, had ministers, or certain officials who were called the king's ears and eyes.' Apuleius, in book I of On the World, describing the grandeur of the Persian court from Aristotle: 'But among them,' he says, 'the king's ears and the emperor's eyes, certain men were called; through the types of offices that King was believed by men to be a god, since everything that was happening anywhere, he learned through the reports of the Otasentae.'
Verse 4: Haman Had Entered the Inner Court
4. NOW HAMAN HAD ENTERED THE INNER COURT OF THE ROYAL HOUSE. In the Hebrew and Chaldean it is 'the outer court'; for it was not permitted to enter the inner court unless summoned by the king. 'Inner' therefore means within the palace in the court, which in relation to the king's innermost chamber was outer, but in relation to the outermost was inner. For there were various courts in the Palace, some of which were more inner, others more outer than others.
TO SUGGEST TO THE KING THAT HE SHOULD ORDER MORDECAI TO BE HANGED ON THE GALLOWS. Haman had hastened and arrived before dawn, so that as the earliest and first he might approach the king and ask that Mordecai be hanged, before the King was occupied with other matters, in order to satisfy his supreme desire to avenge the contempt of himself through the infamous death of the cross upon his contemner Mordecai. For pride as well as anger and indignation did not allow him to rest until he took this vengeance. But God, the just judge and avenger of pride and injustice, turned all of Haman's vengeance back upon himself, and this gradually step by step, until He hanged him on the very same cross which he had erected for Mordecai. In Haman therefore it is clear how true is the saying: 'The penalty follows the guilty head.' And: 'Rarely has punishment on halting foot abandoned the wicked man who went before': For the Most High strikes down and thunderbolts the proud.
Verse 7: A Man Whom the King Wishes to Honor
7 and 8. THE MAN WHOM THE KING WISHES TO HONOR OUGHT TO BE CLOTHED IN ROYAL GARMENTS, AND SET UPON THE HORSE THAT THE KING RIDES (on which the king is accustomed to sit and ride, as the Hebrew and Septuagint have. For the saddle is like a seat of one sitting on a horse), AND RECEIVE THE ROYAL DIADEM UPON HIS HEAD. The diadem was a band of fine linen with which kings bound their heads. The diadem was a purple ornament distinguished by a white band and precious stones, says Curtius, in books III and VI. It is likely that along with the diadem a royal crown was also placed on Mordecai's head; for this was the king's proper insignia, which Haman coveted and sought for himself, thinking that these things were being prepared by the king for no one but himself; and that Mordecai wore this by the king's command is clear from chapter 8, verse 15. Moreover this crown among the Persians had rays like a miter, that is, of the sun, which they worshipped as God and king. For the kings among the Persians wished to be worshipped with divine honors, as if they were mitres and certain earthly suns. But Haman, ignorant of all this, prepared against his own intention for his enemy Mordecai, whom he was asking to be crucified; and this greatly tormented him, namely that he himself had dictated the sentence according to which the king would bestow the highest and royal honor upon Mordecai, which the king ordered to be conferred upon Mordecai through Haman himself as the one who had prescribed it. So David, making Solomon his son king and successor, said: 'Take with you the servants of your Lord, and set my son Solomon upon my mule,' etc. And: 'He shall come and sit upon my throne, and he shall reign in my place.'
Verse 10: Take the Robe and Horse; Do for Mordecai
10. MAKE HASTE, AND TAKING THE ROBE AND HORSE, DO AS YOU HAVE SAID TO MORDECAI THE JEW. 'Robe,' that is, the royal garment, as Haman had said in verse 8, which the Septuagint and the Chaldean call a linen robe. Whence also Xenophon, in book VIII, calls King Cyrus's purple tunic half-white: 'But others,' he says, 'were not permitted to wear the half-white.' Understand that the king sent to Haman to also give a golden chain, a golden scimitar, and golden bracelets to Mordecai. For it was the custom for the man whom the king wished to honor to be adorned with these insignia, as is clear from 3 Esdras chapter 9, and from Josephus, book XI of the Antiquities, chapter IV, and from Aemilius Probus in his Life of Artaxerxes.
WHO SITS BEFORE THE GATES. There Mordecai then sat as one lowly and despised, but after this honor bestowed upon him by the king, he was introduced into the hall of the palace, and made an intimate of the king and a courtier, as will be clear from chapter 16, verse 13.
Verse 11: He Cried Out: This Is the Honor He Deserves
11. HE CRIED OUT (Haman): THIS HONOR IS HE WORTHY OF, WHOM THE KING WISHES TO HONOR. See here the sudden and supreme reversal of fortune, by which Mordecai, destined for death, is raised to royal dignity and becomes like a second king, and this by his own enemy Haman; who therefore here suffered very many and very great pains and anguish. First, the honor he had hoped for tormented him by being taken away from himself. Second, because it had been transferred to his mortal enemy Mordecai. Third, because he himself had to confer this honor upon him. Fourth, because he who was formerly worshipped by all as a god was now the groom and herald of Mordecai, a lowly Jew. Fifth, because all these things rushed upon him at once unexpectedly. The Rabbis fabricate that Haman's daughter poured a chamber pot on her father's head as he passed by, thinking she was pouring it on Mordecai's head, and therefore Haman said: 'You too, my daughter, have put me to shame.'
Verse 12: Mourning and with His Head Covered
12. MOURNING AND WITH HIS HEAD COVERED on account of shame, grief, and intense anguish; for he was ashamed to show his face openly, he who had just served as Mordecai's groom, whereas before he had been honored as a god.
Verse 13: If Mordecai Is of the Seed of the Jews
13. IF MORDECAI IS OF THE SEED OF THE JEWS, BEFORE WHOM YOU HAVE BEGUN TO FALL, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RESIST HIM, BUT YOU WILL FALL BEFORE HIM. Haman's friends said this either by a certain divine inspiration, says Serarius, like the Sibyls and Caiaphas in John 11, or by a certain human wisdom and shrewd conjecture drawn from the fact that they had seen many Jews of obstinate and unyielding character, who did not rest until they had destroyed their enemies, and that they had heard by common report that Pharaoh, the Canaanites, and other enemies of the Jews had been crushed by them through Moses, Joshua, David, etc. Lyra adds that they said this from Genesis chapter 12, verses 15 and following, where God promises Abraham and Jacob constancy of posterity, prosperity, and victory over their enemies; for Genesis and the Pentateuch had been translated into the Persian language by the Hebrews captive in Persia. This is uncertain, but not improbable.