Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The prayer and lamentation of Esther, which is to be appended to the prayer of Mordecai after chapter IV, as it is appended in the Greek-Roman text.
Vulgate Text: Esther 14:1-19
1. Esther the queen also took refuge with the Lord, dreading the danger that was imminent. 2. And when she had laid aside her royal garments, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various perfumes she filled her head with ashes and dung, and she humiliated her body with fasting: and all the places where she had formerly been accustomed to rejoice, she filled with the tearing of her hair. 3. And she prayed to the Lord God of Israel, saying: O my Lord, who alone are our King, help me who am alone, and who has no other helper besides You. 4. My danger is in my hands. 5. (Deut. IV, 3.) I heard from my father that You, O Lord, took Israel out of all nations, and our fathers from all their ancestors before them, that You might possess an everlasting inheritance, and You did for them as You had promised. 6. We have sinned in Your sight, and therefore You delivered us into the hands of our enemies: 7. for we worshipped their gods. You are just, O Lord. 8. And now it is not enough for them that they oppress us with the harshest servitude, but attributing the strength of their hands to the power of their idols, 9. they wish to change Your promises, and destroy Your inheritance, and close the mouths of those who praise You, and extinguish the glory of Your temple and Your altar, 10. so that they may open the mouths of the Gentiles, and praise the power of idols, and exalt a mortal king forever. 11. Do not deliver, O Lord, Your scepter to those who are nothing, lest they laugh at our ruin: but turn their counsel upon themselves, and destroy him who has begun to rage against us. 12. Remember, O Lord, and show Yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me confidence, O Lord, King of gods and of all power; 13. grant a well-composed speech in my mouth in the sight of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred of our enemy, that both he himself may perish, and the rest who consent with him. 14. But deliver us by Your hand, and help me who have no other help but You, O Lord, who have the knowledge of all things, 15. and You know that I hate the glory of the wicked, and detest the bed of the uncircumcised and of every foreigner. 16. You know my necessity, that I abominate the sign of my pride and glory, which is upon my head in the days of my public appearances, and that I detest it as a menstrual rag, and do not wear it in the days of my silence; 17. and that I have not eaten at the table of Haman, nor has the banquet of the king pleased me, and I have not drunk the wine of libations: 18. and Your handmaid has never rejoiced since I was brought here to the present day, except in You, O Lord God of Abraham. 19. O God mighty above all, hear the voice of those who have no other hope, and deliver us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.
Verse 1: Dreading the Danger That Was Imminent
Verse 1. Dreading the danger. — The Septuagint: seized in the agony of death, such as was the agony and final prayer of Christ in the garden.
Verse 2: She Humiliated Herself with Fasting
Verse 2. She humiliated with fasting. — The word "fasting" is not in the Greek, but is understood: for the Hebrews call the humiliation of the body fasting; for nothing depresses the flesh as much as fasting, whence the Hebrews call the fast proclaimed by Esther on the 13th of Adar Taanith Esther, that is, the humiliation, that is, the fast of Esther. St. Ambrose wisely says, Epistle 88: Esther, he says, bent the proud king by her fasts; on which matter I said more in chapter IV at the end.
With the tearing of hair. — The ancients were accustomed in great calamity and lamentation to clap their hands, beat their breast, tear their cheeks, and rend their hair from the vehemence of grief, so as to move all to compassion and lamentation, as Ezra narrates of himself, book I, chapter IX, and as Josephus reports of Alexandra the daughter of Hyrcanus and mother-in-law of Herod, and Salome the sister of Herod, book XV, XI, and book XVI, XI.
Verse 3: Help Me Who Am Alone
Verse 3. Help me who am alone: — both because in the court of a Gentile king I alone am Jewish; and because I am destitute of all human help, as follows; and because I desire the speech and consolation not of any human being, but of God alone. Josippus says Esther prayed thus: I dwell here alone, I am alone in the king's house without father and without mother. Like a poor orphan girl who begs from door to door, so I beg Your mercies from window to window, that is, going from one window to another, that I might look toward heaven and from there await from God help for so great an affliction; for it was for this reason that the Jews when praying were accustomed to ascend to upper rooms and look toward heaven through windows, as Judith did, chapter VIII, verse 5; Daniel, chapter VI, verse 10; indeed Christ for this reason used to ascend mountains, and there "was spending the night in the prayer of God," Luke VI, 12.
Verse 4: My Danger Is in My Hands
Verse 4. My danger (Josippus: my soul) is in my hands, — that is, it is most present and extreme; for what is carried in the hands can easily be spilled, or snatched and taken away by a thief or enemy. So David, fleeing from Saul and enemies seeking to kill him, says, Psalm CXVIII, 109: "My soul is in my hands," that is, my life is in the utmost danger, so that I seem to carry it in my hand, and to offer it to anyone who wishes to take it away.
Verse 7: We Worshipped Their Gods
Verse 7. For we worshipped their gods, — not I, but our ancestors in Jerusalem under Manasseh and other idolatrous kings. So Josippus Gorionides.
Verse 8: Attributing Their Strength to the Power of Idols
Verse 8. Attributing the strength of their hands to the power of their idols, — that is, as Josippus translates: Behold, they (Haman and his followers) do not say that You (O Lord) delivered us into their hands, but they attribute it to their idols (to Mithras, that is, the sun).
Verse 9: They Wish to Change Your Promises
Verse 9. They wish to change Your promises (by which You promised our fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc., that You would be our God and protector) and to destroy Your inheritance (that is, the people of Israel, which as Your own possession acknowledges and worships You alone as God and Lord) and to extinguish the glory of Your temple and Your altar, — recently rebuilt in Jerusalem by this Assuerus, that is, Darius Hystaspis, I Ezra VI. For if Haman had persuaded Darius to destroy all the Jews in Persia, his hatred would not have stopped there, but he would also have taken care to have Jerusalem with its temple destroyed.
Verse 10: Exalting a Mortal King
Verse 10. And that they may exalt a mortal king; — Darius or Haman, who rules over us like a king and tyrant, so that "they may proclaim" that he, being more powerful than us and our God, has killed and exterminated us all.
Verse 11: Do Not Deliver Your Scepter to Those Who Are Nothing
Verse 11. Do not deliver Your scepter to those who are nothing, — that is, to false gods and idols who are not gods, lest divinity and Your omnipotence be ascribed to them, as if to say: Do not permit divine power to be attributed to demons as if they were gods, as though through their power Haman who worships them has destroyed us, so that the demons may triumph over You, O Lord, and be worshipped instead of You as gods.
Verse 13: Grant Well-Composed Speech Before the Lion
Verse 13. Grant a well-composed speech in my mouth in the sight of the lion, — as if to say: So compose and arrange my words in my mouth that I may soften the spirit of my husband Darius who is terrible as a lion, and bend him to mercy toward me and my Jews. Hence St. Augustine, book I of On Christian Doctrine, chapter XV, teaches that the preacher must, like Esther here, before his sermon beg the same thing from God, namely that He so compose the words in his mouth that they may penetrate, strike, and pierce the minds of the hearers. Behold, Esther approaching Darius, uninvited, trembles like a kid before a lion, as if to be devoured by him, and therefore wholly afflicted and remorseful, she most ardently implores and obtains the aid of the one God. So St. Paul calls Nero a lion, saying: "I was delivered from the mouth of the lion," II Timothy IV, 17. For as it is said in Proverbs XX, 2: "As the roaring of a lion, so also is the terror of a king." This will be evident in the following chapter.
Verse 15: I Hate the Glory of the Wicked
Verse 15. You know that I hate the glory of the wicked, and detest the bed of the uncircumcised, — as if to say: I, because I am faithful and a worshipper of God, detest marriage and union with Darius who is an unbeliever and an idolater; but nevertheless I accept and permit it, driven by necessity, so that I may please him and win him over to myself and my Jews.
Verse 16: I Abominate the Sign of My Pride
Verse 16. You know my necessity, — by which I am compelled to adorn myself royally in the Persian manner as a queen, that I may please the king my husband, which I would certainly not wish to do, nor would I do it, unless this necessity forced me. Hence St. Augustine, epistle 199 to Ecdicia, reproves her because, wishing to please God alone, with indiscreet zeal she assumed the habit of a nun, and distributing her goods to the poor without her husband's knowledge, she displeased him and gave him occasion for adultery.
That I abominate the sign of my pride, which is upon my head in the days of my public appearances, — namely when I appear in public or before the king, and display myself as a queen in royal dress and ornament. She calls the sign of pride the royal tiara or crown, which she wore tall upon her head, set with gold and gems like a tower, as even today some women so adorn and build up their heads that they seem to be towered or tower-bearing, of whom Juvenal, Satire X:
With so many tiers, with so many layers still, she towers up Her lofty head; from the front you will see Andromache, From behind she is shorter — you would think her another woman.
And I detest it as a menstrual rag. — In Greek, as a cloth of menstruation, that is, a cloth soiled with menstrual blood, which is most filthy, most foul-smelling, indeed poisonous and utterly abominable, as Pliny shows at length, book VII, chapter XIX. Hear St. Augustine, Epistle 199, already cited: "Esther, that queen who feared God, who worshipped God, who was subject to God, yet served in subjection to her husband the king, a foreigner who did not worship the same God as she; who, when with extreme danger, not only to herself but also to her nation, which was then the people of God, she prostrated herself before the Lord in prayer, said in her very prayer that the royal ornament was to her like a menstrual rag; and God immediately heard her as she prayed, for He who inspects the heart knew that she spoke the truth. And indeed she had a husband who was the husband of many women, and a worshipper of foreign and false gods."
And I do not wear it in the days of my silence, — namely when at home in my chamber I rest and remain hidden as a private person.
Verse 17: I Have Not Drunk the Wine of Libations
Verse 17. And I have not drunk the wine of libations, — namely that which was offered and tasted beforehand in honor of idols.
Verse 18: Your Handmaid Has Never Rejoiced
Verse 18. And Your handmaid has never rejoiced since I was brought here (to the royal court and throne) to the present day except in You, O God of Abraham. — As if to say: Just as Abraham believed in the one God, hoped in Him alone, and placed all his goods in Him, so that he rejoiced in nothing other than in God and of his God; so also I have never rejoiced in royal honor and ornament, nor in royal riches and pleasures, since they are meager, perishable, and vain, but in You alone, O Lord God; for You are to me all honor, all beauty, all delight, all wealth, all sweetness, all good; and that solid, stable, immense, and everlasting. Great was the purity, sincerity, charity, and sanctity of Esther's soul, as is clear from these words. Let us learn from her to rejoice in nothing of the world, but in God alone, as David exhorts, saying: "Rejoice in the Lord and exult, you just." And "Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart," Psalm XXXVI, 4. And Paul: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice." Philippians IV, 4. See what is said there; for God alone is the true joy of the heart, indeed the sea and ocean of all goods as well as of all joys. He alone fills with immense joys all the senses and recesses of our soul. Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart, says St. Bernard.