Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Jews kill their enemies on the same day which those enemies had destined for their slaughter, and hang the ten sons of Haman; in memory of this benefit a perpetual feast on the 14th and 15th day of the month of Adar is instituted by Mordecai.
Vulgate Text: Esther 9:1-32
1. Therefore on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which we have already said is called Adar, when the destruction of all the Jews was being prepared, and their enemies were thirsting for their blood, the tables were turned and the Jews began to prevail, and to take vengeance on their adversaries. 2. And they gathered in every city, town, and place, to extend their hand against their enemies and persecutors. And no one dared to resist, because the fear of their greatness had penetrated all peoples. 3. For the judges of the provinces, and the governors, and the procurators, and every official who presided over each place and work, exalted the Jews out of fear of Mordecai; 4. whom they knew to be the prince of the palace and to have very great power; the fame of his name also grew daily and flew on the lips of all. 5. So the Jews struck their enemies with a great blow, and killed them, rendering to them what they had prepared to do to themselves; 6. so much so that even in Susa they killed five hundred men, besides the ten sons of Haman the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews; whose names are these: 7. Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, 8. and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 9. and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vaizatha. 10. When they had killed them, they would not touch the plunder from their goods. 11. And immediately the number of those who had been killed in Susa was reported to the king. 12. He said to the Queen: In the city of Susa the Jews have killed five hundred men, and another ten sons of Haman; how great a slaughter do you think they are carrying out in all the provinces? What more do you request, and what do you wish me to order? 13. She answered: If it please the king, let the Jews be given power to do tomorrow in Susa as they did today, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on gallows. 14. And the king commanded that it be done. And immediately the edict was posted in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged. 15. When the Jews gathered on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, three hundred men were killed in Susa: nor was their property plundered by them. 16. And throughout all the provinces subject to the king's dominion, the Jews stood for their lives, killing their enemies and persecutors; so that seventy-five thousand of the slain were counted, and no one touched anything of their property. 17. The thirteenth day of the month of Adar was the first day of slaughter among all, and on the fourteenth day they ceased killing. They established it as a solemn day, so that at all times thereafter they might devote themselves to feasting, joy, and banquets. 18. But those who had carried out the slaughter in the city of Susa were engaged in killing on the thirteenth and fourteenth day of that month; and on the fifteenth day they ceased striking. And therefore they established that same day as a solemn day of feasting and gladness. 19. But those Jews who dwelt in unwalled towns and villages decreed the fourteenth day of the month of Adar for banquets and joy, so that they should exult on it, and send portions of feasts and foods to one another. 20. So Mordecai wrote all these things, and sent them in letters to the Jews dwelling in all the king's provinces, both near and far, 21. that they should accept the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month of Adar as feast days, and celebrate them with solemn honor as each year returned, 22. because on those days the Jews avenged themselves on their enemies, and mourning and sorrow were turned into gladness and joy, and these should be days of feasting and gladness, and they should send portions of food to one another, and give small gifts to the poor. 23. And the Jews accepted as a solemn rite all that they had begun to do at that time, and what Mordecai had commanded by letter to be done. 24. For Haman the son of Hammedatha, of the stock of Agag, the enemy and adversary of the Jews, had plotted evil against them, to kill and destroy them, and had cast phur, which in our language means lot. 25. And afterward Esther went in to the king, beseeching that his attempts be made void by the king's letters; and the evil which he had plotted against the Jews should return upon his own head. Finally both he and his sons were fixed to the cross, 26. and from that time those days were called Purim, that is, of lots; because phur, that is, lot, had been cast into the urn. And all that was done is contained in the letter, that is, in the volume of this book; 27. and what they suffered, and what was afterward changed, the Jews took upon themselves and their seed, and upon all who wished to join their religion, that no one should be allowed to pass these two days without solemnity; which the Scripture attests, and fixed times demand, with years continually succeeding one another. 28. These are the days which no oblivion will ever erase; and in every generation all the provinces in the whole world will celebrate them; nor is there any city in which the days of Purim, that is, of lots, are not observed by the Jews and by their posterity, which is bound by these ceremonies. 29. And Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote also a second letter, that this solemn day should be established for the future with all diligence; 30. and they sent to all the Jews who dwelt in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of King Ahasuerus, that they should have peace and receive truth, 31. observing the days of lots; and celebrating them in their time with joy; as Mordecai and Esther had established, and they had accepted for themselves and their seed to observe, fasts and cries and the days of Lots, 32. and all that the history of this book, which is called Esther, contains.
Verse 6: Five Hundred Men Killed in Susa
6. SO THAT EVEN IN SUSA THEY KILLED FIVE HUNDRED MEN BESIDES THE TEN SONS OF HAMAN — whom they first killed publicly in the theater, as it seems, as criminals condemned by the king; for they began the slaughter with the sons of Haman, their sworn enemy, as the first fruits and first victims of their just vengeance; then they hung the bodies of those already killed on the next day on gallows, as is said in verse 14, for the greater ignominy of Haman and the terror of the enemies. Therefore in the third month the king issued the edict that the Jews should slay the sons of Haman and their other adversaries, as stated in chapter 8, verse 9. Wherefore the Jews immediately imprisoned the sons of Haman, lest they escape by flight, and after nine months, namely on the 13th day of the twelfth month, which had been designated for the slaughter, they killed them, and on the following day hanged the slain. You will say: in chapter 6, verse 18, the king issuing this edict says that Haman and all his kindred should hang on gallows before the gate of Susa; therefore the sons of Haman were killed with him in the third month, not the twelfth. I answer that by 'kindred' there we should not understand his sons (for otherwise he would have named them explicitly), but the relatives and associates of Haman; for these, as his supporters, were hanged with him; but the sons were reserved for the common slaughter of all, and for the public spectacle of just vengeance on the 13th day of Adar.
Verse 10: They Would Not Touch the Plunder
10. WHEN THEY HAD KILLED THEM, THEY WOULD NOT TOUCH THE PLUNDER FROM THEIR PROPERTY — both to show that they sought nothing other than the safety of their own lives; for it was their lives that those who were killed wished to take; therefore they did not covet riches, nor kill some innocent rich person among the guilty for the sake of wealth (as often happens); and finally, because Haman, as the sworn enemy of the Jews, was virtually under the ban, and therefore under a prohibition, so that no one should dare touch his or his sons' property. They did the same with the other slain, whose possessions they refused to plunder, as is said in verse 16, even though the king had granted them this right, chapter 8, verse 11. Would that Christian leaders and soldiers would imitate them, who not only plunder their enemies, but also often despoil their friends, and indeed slaughter them for the hope of plunder!
Judas Maccabeus instituted another feast on the same day, the 13th of Adar, on account of the notable victory obtained on the same day over Nicanor, concerning which see 2 Maccabees, last chapter, verse 37.
Verse 16: Seventy-Five Thousand of the Slain
16. SO THAT SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND OF THE SLAIN WERE COUNTED. — Great was this number of enemies, and therefore also of the slain, because the Jews could not be secure for their lives unless these were killed. And this is what is said here: 'For their lives (constantly striking their enemies to defend their own lives) the Jews stood, having killed their enemies,' etc. For unless these had been killed, it was to be feared that they would attack the Jews again, and indeed rebel against the king. Moreover, Mordecai commanded the Jews to diligently inquire and record who were truly enemies of the Jews, and that the guilty should be killed, as was done in the Sicilian and Parisian Vespers; and therefore he ordered the slaughter to be deferred for nine months, namely from the third month to the twelfth.
Verse 26: These Days Were Called Purim
26. AND FROM THAT TIME THOSE DAYS (the 13th and 14th of Adar, on which the Jews who were to be slaughtered instead slaughtered their enemies) WERE CALLED PURIM, THAT IS, OF LOTS: BECAUSE PHUR, THAT IS, LOT, HAD BEEN CAST INTO THE URN. — Thus this feast, says Sanchez, is called 'Purim,' that is, of lots — not from the liberty which the Jews obtained on that day by killing or subduing their enemies; but from the lots which Haman consulted, and which designated the thirteenth day of the month of Adar for the slaughter of the Jews, so that when that day returns on its anniversary, the memory of that danger in which they had been, and what consternation and anguish of mind they had experienced when they received the news about the lots and the day, would be renewed.
Incorrectly in the Roman Septuagint, instead of 'phurim' as the Complutensian Septuagint has it, we read phrurim; whence Josephus also calls these days phrouraious. Unless you prefer that the Septuagint and Josephus changed the word phurim by adding the letter r into phrourim, to allude to the Greek etymon of the verb phroureo, which means to guard and to protect, as if to say: These days were called by our enemies Purim, that is, of lots, and also of destructions, by which they would destroy our race (for this is what phur means in Hebrew and Arabic); but by God through Esther and Mordecai, from phurim they were made phrourim, that is, days of guarding and preservation, by which we were preserved safe in life; but for our enemies these same days became 'phurim,' that is, of destruction; by which they themselves were destroyed and slaughtered by us.
Thus allegorically the days of Christ's passion were days of 'purim,' that is, of lots and destructions, in which the Jews cast lots about killing Christ instead of Barabbas; and the soldiers about dividing the tunic of the crucified Christ; for then they broke Christ's flesh with nails, scourges, and thorns; but these days of 'purim' through Christ were made phrourim, that is, phrouraioi, that is, days of guarding and preservation; because all who believe in, hope in, and love Christ were freed from sin, death, and hell. These same days became 'purim' for the Jews, because on those very days — namely at Passover, 38 years later — Jerusalem was captured, devastated, and utterly destroyed by Titus. The same thing was prefigured by the lot customarily cast on the Day of Atonement over two goats, one the scapegoat, the other to be sacrificed for sin, Leviticus 16:8-9. See what is said there.
Tropologically, the saints celebrate the feast of 'purim' when adverse fortunes are changed into prosperous ones, as they were changed for holy Job in the last chapter; for Joseph, Genesis 41:41; for Moses, Exodus 4-5; for David, for Tobias, and for other saints, and specifically for St. Eustace, as is evident from his life in Surius, under September 20.
Anagogically, the day of 'purim,' that is, of lots, will be the day of judgment, on which Christ will change the lots of the pious afflicted in this life and of the impious exulting in this life, and will assign to the pious perpetual joy, to the impious everlasting Gehenna, as the Wise Man teaches in chapter 5, verse 1, and Isaiah in chapter 65, verse 12, and Christ Himself in Luke 6:21 and 25.
AND ALL THAT WAS DONE IS CONTAINED IN THE LETTER, THAT IS, IN THE VOLUME OF THIS BOOK. — From this it is gathered that Mordecai was the author of this book. For he was the author of this letter; and the letter contained the same things that this book contains; but what Mordecai had first written briefly in the letter, the same things he wrote more fully when transferring them into this book, and polished more carefully.
Verse 27: What They Endured and What Was Changed
27. AND WHAT THEY SUFFERED ('the Jews' from Haman and his followers), AND WHAT WAS AFTERWARD CHANGED (the lot of the slaughter of the Jews having been turned by them upon their enemies; supply: 'is contained in the volume of this book,' and in memory of these things, and in thanksgiving) THE JEWS TOOK UPON THEMSELVES AND UPON THEIR SEED; that is, they obligated themselves, their children, and their posterity, as well as the proselytes WHO WISHED TO JOIN THEIR RELIGION, (to celebrate this feast of 'purim,' that is, of lots,) SO THAT NO ONE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PASS THESE TWO DAYS WITHOUT SOLEMNITY — not that all should keep both days as a feast, but one of the two, or at least the third day from the slaughter: for the Jews dwelling in Susa, because they had struck down their enemies on both the 13th and the 14th, therefore celebrated the feast of 'purim' on the 15th of Adar, when they had ceased from slaughter; but the others who had ceased from slaughter one day earlier, namely on the fourteenth, celebrated the feast on that same day.
Which (days) the Scripture (that is, the letter of Mordecai afterward confirmed by the whole Synagogue) ATTESTS — that is, solemnly declares and commands should be recalled each year with remembrance and gratitude.
AND FIXED TIMES DEMAND WITH YEARS CONTINUALLY SUCCEEDING ONE ANOTHER — that is, so that they should be celebrated each year at a certain and fixed time, namely on the 14th and 15th days already mentioned, and this not only by Mordecai's decree, but also by the decree of Ahasuerus, who commanded the same not only for the Jews, but also for the Persians and all other peoples subject to his empire, chapter 16, verses 22 and 24.
Anagogically, the feast of lots signifies the feast and joy of the blessed in heaven over the triumph over the devil, the world, tyrants, and all other persecutors, who had cast lots for their destruction; but they were freed through one man and through one woman, that is, through Christ and Mary, and they will punish their enemies with swords, as it is written in Psalm 149:6: 'And two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance upon the nations, rebukes upon the peoples, to bind their kings in fetters and their nobles in chains of iron, to execute upon them the judgment that is written: this is the glory of all His saints.' This will happen at the end of the world, that is, on the day of judgment; therefore it is celebrated in the twelfth month. It is kept on the fourteenth day, that is, at full moon, because when the Saints with Christ will judge the nations and rule over the peoples, then the Church of the Saints will have the fullness of its beauty.
But the fifteenth day is added to the solemnity, to signify by this second day the joy which the Saints will have seeing always the condemnation of their impious persecutors, as it is written in Isaiah: 'And they will go out and see the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all flesh.' So Ribera, book 5 On the Temple, last chapter.
Verse 30: That They Should Have Peace and Truth
30. THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE PEACE AND RECEIVE TRUTH. — The Hebrew says: They sent letters of words of peace and truth, that is, praying for them peace, which means every kind of prosperity, and exhorting them to truth, that is, faithfulness and constancy in keeping their promises about celebrating the feast of 'purim' on the appointed days.
Verse 31: Fasts and Outcries
31. AND THEY ACCEPTED FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR SEED TO OBSERVE FASTS AND CRIES. — For the Jews were accustomed to fast on the day before feasts, as Christians also do on the vigils of Saints; they were also accustomed to mingle cries with their prayers, and to cry out mightily to the Lord, especially in public calamity, as the Jews who had been destined for death by Haman did here; and therefore wailing and lamenting; in memory of which they renewed these cries every year on the same day with noise and the pounding of benches, as I said at verse 1; just as Christians during the three days of Christ's passion produce noise with rattles and clapping: which some, along with Serarius, suspect derived from this practice of the Hebrews.
Add that St. Athanasius in his Synopsis records that on the same 13th of Adar, the Jews in memory of and as an insult to the crucified Haman used to carry a wooden cross publicly and burn it together with an image of Haman. But because many of the Jews by this tragedy of Haman were representing and mocking the passion and cross of Christ, as if Christ were the masked figure of Haman, for this reason the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius prohibited these rites and gestures, as is evident from the Code, On the Jews and Worshippers of Heaven, Law 'Judaeos,' where it says: 'The governors of provinces shall prohibit certain Jews from lighting fires at the celebration of their festival in memory of a punishment once inflicted, and from burning with sacrilegious intent a likeness simulating the holy cross in contempt of the Christian faith.'