Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Mordecai succeeds to Haman's dignity. Esther demands and obtains from the king that Haman's letters for the slaughter of the Jews be revoked, and new ones written in favor of the Jews. Whereupon the Jews rejoice.
Vulgate Text: Esther 8:1-17
1. On that day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, and Mordecai came before the face of the king. For Esther confessed to him that he was her uncle. 2. And the king took the ring which he had ordered to be taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai over her household. 3. Not content with this, she fell at the king's feet and wept, and speaking to him, begged that the wickedness of Haman the Agagite and his most evil plots which he had devised against the Jews be ordered to be annulled. 4. And he, as was the custom, extended the golden scepter from his hand, by which a sign of clemency was shown; and she rising stood before him, 5. and said: If it please the king, and if I have found grace in his eyes, and my supplication does not seem contrary to him, I beg that the old letters of Haman, the plotter and enemy of the Jews, by which he had ordered them to perish in all the king's provinces, be corrected by new letters. 6. For how shall I be able to endure the slaughter and destruction of my people? 7. And King Ahasuerus answered Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew: I have granted Haman's house to Esther, and I have ordered him to be hanged on the cross, because he dared to lay his hand against the Jews. 8. Write therefore to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king's name, sealing the letters with my ring. For it was the custom that no one dared to contradict the letters which were sent in the king's name and sealed with his ring. 9. And the scribes and secretaries of the king being summoned (it was the time of the third month, which is called Sivan), on the twenty-third day of that month, letters were written as Mordecai wished, to the Jews, and to the princes, governors, and judges who presided over the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia; to each province and people according to their languages and scripts, and to the Jews as they could read and understand. 10. And these letters, which were sent in the king's name, were sealed with his ring, and sent by couriers: who, running through all the provinces, would outrun the old letters with the new messages. 11. The king commanded them to assemble the Jews in each city and order them to gather together, to stand for their lives, and to kill and destroy all their enemies, with their wives and children and entire households, and to plunder their spoils. 12. And one day of vengeance was appointed through all the provinces, that is, the thirteenth of the twelfth month Adar. 13. And the sum of the letter was this: that in all the lands and peoples subject to King Ahasuerus's rule, it should be made known that the Jews were prepared to take vengeance on their enemies. 14. And the couriers went out swiftly carrying the messages, and the king's edict was posted in Susa. 15. And Mordecai, coming out from the palace and from the king's presence, was resplendent in royal garments, of blue and white, wearing a golden crown on his head, and clad in a silken and purple mantle. And the whole city rejoiced and was glad. 16. And to the Jews a new light seemed to arise, joy, honor, and dancing. 17. Among all peoples, cities, and provinces, wherever the king's orders came, there was wonderful exultation, feasting and banquets, and a festive day; so much so that many of other nations and sects joined their religion and ceremonies. For a great terror of the Jewish name had seized everyone.
Verse 1: King Ahasuerus Gave Esther the House of Haman
1. ON THAT DAY KING AHASUERUS (in Greek, Artaxerxes) GAVE QUEEN ESTHER THE HOUSE OF HAMAN, with all its precious furnishings and stocked with gold and silver, as is clear from the Septuagint and Josephus. For the goods of Haman as one guilty of treason the king confiscated for the treasury and gave to the queen, according to that saying of Cyrus in Josephus, book XI of the Antiquities, chapter 1: 'Those who through disobedience shall treat these our commands (namely concerning the building of the temple) as void, I wish to be crucified, and their property to be attributed to our treasury.' Darius later issued the same decree, in 1 Esdras, chapter 6, verse 11: 'By me,' he said, 'a decree is made that every man who shall change this command, a timber shall be taken from his house, and he shall be raised up and fastened upon it, and his house shall be confiscated.'
AND MORDECAI CAME BEFORE THE FACE OF THE KING. As if to say: He became the king's intimate, most closely connected, and most familiar, as the one nearest to the king, as Haman had been.
Verse 2: The King Took the Ring and Gave It to Mordecai
2. AND THE KING TOOK THE RING WHICH HE HAD ORDERED TO BE TAKEN BACK FROM HAMAN, AND GAVE IT TO MORDECAI. This was the royal ring with which Haman had sealed his letters for the killing of the Jews as if with the royal seal. And so this ring was of the highest dignity and authority, and made Mordecai the king's viceroy and a second king, as it were. Whence Alexander ab Alexandro, in book II of the Genial Days, chapter 9: 'Among the Persians,' he says, 'to be given a ring by the king was a sign of friendship, by which token they signified that they were admitting them to the most intimate fellowship and the bond of the greatest alliance.'
Hence Mordecai was also adorned with royal garments and a golden crown, and in chapter 9, verse 4, he is called 'prince of the palace,' and in chapter 10, verse 3: 'second to the king,' and as Josephus says, book XI, chapter 6: 'He governed the empire together with the king.'
AND ESTHER APPOINTED MORDECAI OVER HER HOUSEHOLD, to be her steward, indeed her director, as he had been before she became queen. Serarius thinks that Esther gave Mordecai the house of Haman, given to her by the king, and Josephus reports this, book 11, chapter 6; but this is not properly signified by these words.
Verse 5: New Letters to Correct Haman's Old Ones
5. I BEG THAT THE OLD LETTERS OF HAMAN, ETC., BE CORRECTED BY NEW LETTERS. Here was the difficult knot; for Haman had written and sealed letters for the killing of the Jews in the king's name; but the letters and decrees of the king of Persia were irrevocable, as is clear in the case of Daniel condemned to the lions' den, Daniel chapter 6, verse 15. Therefore Esther strove by genuflection, tears, and every art to bend the king to annulling these letters. And she prudently accomplished the matter by this reasoning and method, saying that these were not the king's but Haman's letters, which he had deceitfully written without the king's knowledge and sealed with the royal ring. Since it was now clear to the king that Haman had been a plotter and traitor, it was fair that his acts and treasonous writings be annulled, as having been fraudulently foisted upon the king who was unaware, and promulgated to the damage and disgrace of kings and the whole kingdom. By this reasoning she persuaded the king to abrogate Haman's letters as those of his enemy and plotter, and to dictate contrary ones in favor of the Jews, as the king himself declares in chapter 16, verse 17. Thus the king wiped away from himself all the blame and infamy of the former edict, and transferred it to Haman, while issuing a contrary decree for the Jews.
Verse 9: The Scribes and Secretaries Were Summoned
9. AND THE SCRIBES AND SECRETARIES BEING SUMMONED. The scribes were the chief officials who dictated the letters, the secretaries those who copied what was dictated by the scribes, both so that they might be sent to the provinces, and so that they might be entered into the public archives and records.
Verse 11: The King Commanded the Couriers
11. THE KING COMMANDED THEM (the couriers or messengers) TO ASSEMBLE THE JEWS, namely that they should announce to them the king's edict issued in their favor, lest magistrates hostile to the Jews should on some pretext conceal, delay, or suppress it; but they should be compelled by the Jews themselves to carry it out; and they should threaten that if they did not, they would accuse them before the king as contemners of the royal edict. The Septuagint adds here, and our text in chapter 16, that by this edict the king granted the Jews the right to live everywhere by their own laws.
Verse 15: Mordecai Shone in Royal Garments
15. AND MORDECAI, ETC., WAS RESPLENDENT IN ROYAL GARMENTS, OF BLUE AND WHITE. That is, white, as the Hebrew and Chaldean have. See what was said on chapter 1, verse 6. From this color the nobles were called horim, as if 'the white ones.' They also used to wear white garments on feast days and joyful occasions, such as this was, according to the saying: 'At all times let your garments be white,' Ecclesiastes 9:8. See what was said there.
WEARING A GOLDEN CROWN ON HIS HEAD, rayed in the Persian manner, that is, vibrating with rays like a miter, or of the sun (which the Persians worshipped as God). Behold Mordecai like a second king, who shortly before had walked about squalid and wretched, destined for the cross: 'God wished to raise Mordecai to such great dignity,' says St. Jerome at the end of chapter 1 of Daniel, 'so that just as formerly in Joseph, and recently in Daniel, now in Mordecai the captive and exiled Jews might have consolation, seeing a man of their nation now the prince of the Egyptians, now of the Chaldeans, now of the Persians.' Whence the Chaldean on Canticles 7:5 says: The poor of the people who walked before the Prince here and there, because they were needy, it will come to pass that they shall be clothed in purple, as Daniel was clothed in the city of Babylon, and Mordecai in Susa, by the merit of Abraham, whom God established as king from the beginning of the world; and by the righteousness of Isaac, whom his father bound to offer him: and by the kindness of Jacob, who stripped the rods in the troughs.
Verse 16: A New Light Arose for the Jews
16. AND TO THE JEWS (who had been overcome with fear, grief, and anguish, and were as if half dead) A NEW LIGHT SEEMED TO ARISE, JOY, HONOR, AND DANCING. For leaping with joy they exulted, forming choruses and dancing.
Allegorically, Esther is the Blessed Virgin, of whom in the mystical sense it is said in Sirach 50:6: 'Like the morning star amid the clouds'; because like a bright star she came forth dispelling darkness, of whom St. Bernard, in homily 2 on the Missus est, says: 'She is the noble star of Jacob, whose ray illuminates the whole world, whose splendor shines forth in the heights above, and penetrates the underworld, also traversing the earth and warming minds rather than bodies, fostering virtues, burning away vices.'
Finally, Serarius notes in this tragedy of Haman a sevenfold catastrophe: First, Haman had been exalted above all the Princes: afterward he was cast down below all. Second, he had a throne next to the king's: afterward he had to lead the horse for Mordecai, to serve as his groom and footman. Third, he had hurled very many threatening words against him: and he had to praise him, like a herald. Fourth, he was called father by the king, and afterward by the same king was called a criminal of treason, a traitor, a destroyer. Fifth, raging, he looked at Mordecai with the most hostile and fierce eyes: and afterward he could not bear the face of the Queen. Sixth, not content with the death of Mordecai alone, he wished to drink the blood of all the Jews; and he himself, not alone but with his whole household, with his ten dearest sons, was put on the cross, and many thousands of gentiles of the same mind as himself were slaughtered. Seventh, the very gallows and the very day he had appointed for the death of Mordecai and the other Jews — by these he himself, with his family, most miserably perished.
Verse 17: Many of Other Nations Joined the Jews
17. SO MUCH SO THAT MANY OF OTHER NATIONS AND SECTS JOINED THEIR (the Jews') RELIGION AND CEREMONIES, that is, they were circumcised and converted to Judaism and the true worship of God. For they saw that this wonderful and unhoped-for salvation and exaltation of the Jews could not have happened without the special providence of God, who cared for His people. Therefore, acknowledging the power, clemency, and providence of God toward the Jews, they professed and worshipped Him as the true God. The religion and holiness of Esther and Mordecai, joined with such great authority and glory, also helped not a little in this; whence it follows: FOR A GREAT TERROR OF THE JEWISH NAME HAD SEIZED EVERYONE, lest the Jews should do to them what they had done to Haman, and what they would soon do to their other enemies according to the king's edict in verse 13. Therefore, lest they be considered enemies of the Jews and thus be killed, some truly and others falsely showed themselves to be their friends, and became proselytes.