Esther, Mordecai and Haman

After the death of Xerxes, the kingdom passed to his son Cyrus, whom the Greeks called Artaxerxes. When he had taken power over the Persians, the whole nation of the Jews, with their wives and children, was in danger of perishing. We will explain the cause of this shortly; for first it is proper to tell something about this king, and how he came to marry a Jewish wife, who was herself of royal family and who is said to have saved our nation. When Artaxerxes had taken the kingdom and had set governors over the hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, in the third year of his reign he gave a costly feast for his friends, for the nations of Persia and for their governors, the kind of feast a king gives when he wants to make a public display of his wealth, and it lasted a hundred and eighty days. After that he gave a feast at Susa for the other nations and their ambassadors, lasting seven days. This feast was arranged as follows. He had a tent pitched, supported by pillars of gold and silver, with curtains of linen and purple spread over them, large enough for many tens of thousands to sit down. The cups the servants waited with were of gold, set with precious stones, for pleasure and for show. He also ordered the servants not to force the guests to drink by bringing them wine continually, as the Persians usually do, but to let each guest enjoy himself as he pleased. Moreover, he sent messengers through the country with orders that the people should be released from their work and keep a festival for many days in honor of his reign. [a]

In the same way Queen Vashti gathered her own guests and gave them a feast in the palace. Now the king wanted to show her, who surpassed all other women in beauty, to those feasting with him, and he sent men to command her to come to his feast. But out of regard for the laws of the Persians, which forbid wives to be seen by strangers, she did not go to the king. Though he sent the eunuchs to her again and again, she still stayed away and refused to come, until the king was so provoked that he broke up the party, rose, and called for the seven men entrusted with interpreting the laws. He accused his wife before them, and said that she had insulted him, because though he had called her to his feast many times, she had not obeyed him once. So he ordered them to tell him what could be done to her under the law. One of them, named Memucan, said that this insult had been offered not to him alone but to all the Persians, who were in danger of living very badly with their wives if they were to be despised by them in this way; for none of their wives would have any respect for their husbands if they had “such an example of arrogance in the queen toward you, who rule over all.” So he urged the king to punish her severely for so great an insult, and when he had done so, to announce to the nations what had been decreed about the queen. The decision, then, was to put Vashti away and give her rank to another woman.

But the king had been fond of her and could not bear the separation well, and yet the law would not let him be reconciled to her; so he was troubled at not being able to do what he wanted. When his friends saw him so uneasy, they advised him to put the memory of his wife and his love for her out of his mind, since it did him no good, and to send throughout the inhabited world in search of beautiful virgins, and to take as his wife the one he liked best; for his passion for his former wife would be quenched once another was brought in, and the affection he had for Vashti would be withdrawn from her and placed, little by little, on the woman who was with him. He was persuaded to follow this advice, and ordered certain men to choose from the virgins in his kingdom those thought most beautiful. When a great number of these virgins had been gathered, a girl was found in Babylon whose parents were both dead, and who had been brought up by her uncle Mordecai; that was her uncle’s name. This uncle was of the tribe of Benjamin and was one of the leading men among the Jews. Now this girl, whose name was Esther, proved to be the most beautiful of them all, and the grace of her face drew the eyes of the onlookers to her above the rest. She was put in the care of one of the eunuchs, and was very carefully supplied with sweet spices in great plenty, and with costly ointments, such as her body required to be anointed with. The virgins, who numbered four hundred, used these for six months. When the eunuch judged that the virgins had been purified long enough, for the time just mentioned, and were now fit to go to the king’s bed, he sent one to be with the king every day. When the king had lain with her, he sent her back to the eunuch. [e]

When Esther came to him, he was pleased with her and fell in love with the girl. He married her and made her his lawful wife, and held a wedding feast for her in the twelfth month of the seventh year of his reign, the month called Adar. He also sent angari, as they are called, that is, messengers, to every nation, with orders to keep a feast for his marriage, while he himself entertained the Persians and the Medes and the leading men of the nations for a whole month on account of it. So Esther came to his royal palace, and he set a diadem on her head. In this way Esther was married without making known to the king what nation she came from. Her uncle also moved from Babylon to Susa and lived there. He was about the palace every day, asking how the girl was, for he loved her as if she had been his own daughter.

Now the king had made a law that none of his own people should approach him without being called while he sat on his throne; and men with axes in their hands stood around his throne to punish anyone who approached him uncalled. The king, however, sat with a golden scepter in his hand, which he held out when he wished to spare any of those who approached him uncalled, and whoever touched it was out of danger. But I have said enough about this. [h] Some time after this, Bigthan and Teresh plotted against the king. Barnabazus, the servant of one of the eunuchs, a Jew by birth, learned of their conspiracy and revealed it to the queen’s uncle, and Mordecai, through Esther, made the conspirators known to the king. This troubled the king, but he found out the truth and hanged the eunuchs on a cross. At the time, however, he gave Mordecai no reward, though Mordecai had been the cause of his safety. He only told the scribes to set down his name in the records, and told him to stay in the palace as a close friend of the king. [i]

Now there was a man named Haman, the son of Hammedatha, an Amalekite by birth, who used to go in to the king; and the foreigners and the Persians bowed down to him, because Artaxerxes had commanded that this honor be paid to him. But Mordecai was so wise, and kept the laws of his own country so carefully, that he would not bow down to a human being. When Haman noticed this, he asked where he came from; and when he learned that he was a Jew, he was indignant at him, and said to himself that while the Persians, who were free men, bowed down to him, this man, who was no better than a slave, did not see fit to do so. [j]

Wanting to punish Mordecai, he thought it too small a thing to ask the king that Mordecai alone be punished; he decided instead to wipe out the whole nation. For he was by nature an enemy of the Jews, because the nation of the Amalekites, to which he belonged, had been destroyed by them. So he came to the king and accused them, saying, “There is a certain wicked nation, scattered over all the inhabited earth that is under your rule: a nation set apart from others and unsociable, admitting neither the same kind of worship that others practice nor laws like the laws of others, hostile to your people and to all men in both its customs and its practices. Now if you wish to be a benefactor to your subjects, you will give orders to destroy them utterly, and not leave the least remnant of them, nor keep any of them, either as slaves or as captives.” But so that the king would not suffer any loss from the tribute the Jews paid him, Haman promised to give him forty thousand talents of silver out of his own estate whenever he pleased; and he said he would pay this money very willingly, so that the kingdom might be freed from such a misfortune.

When Haman had made this request, the king both excused him the money and granted him the men, to do with them as he wished. So Haman, having gained what he wanted, immediately sent out a decree, as if from the king, to all the nations. It read as follows: “Artaxerxes, the great king, to the rulers of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, sends this writing. I have governed many nations and gained dominion over all the inhabited earth, as I desired, and I have not been obliged by this power of mine to do anything insolent or cruel to my subjects, but have shown myself considerate and gentle, taking care of their peace and good order, and seeking how they might enjoy these blessings for all time to come. Now I have been kindly informed by Haman, who for his prudence and justice is first in my esteem and in rank, second only to myself, because of his loyalty and constant goodwill toward me, that there is an ill-natured nation mixed in among all mankind, opposed to our laws, not subject to kings, different in its way of life from others, hating monarchy, and of a disposition harmful to our affairs. I therefore order that all these men, of whom Haman, our second father, has informed us, be destroyed with their wives and children, that none of them be spared, and that no one prefer pity for them to obedience to this decree. I will this to be carried out on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month of this present year, so that when all who are hostile to us have been destroyed, and that in one day, we may be allowed to live the rest of our lives in peace from now on.” When this decree was brought to the cities and to the countryside, everyone was ready for the destruction and complete removal of the Jews on the day named, and at Susa in particular they were eager for it. Meanwhile the king and Haman spent their time feasting together with good cheer and wine, but the city was in turmoil. [m]

When Mordecai learned what had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, sprinkled ashes on his head, and went about the city crying out that a nation that had wronged no one was to be destroyed. He went on saying this as far as the king’s palace, and there he stood, for it was not lawful for him to go into it in that dress. All the Jews in the various cities where this decree was published did the same, with lamentation and mourning over the calamities announced against them. [n]

As soon as some people told the queen that Mordecai was standing in front of the court in mourning dress, she was disturbed at the report and sent out people to change his clothes. But when he could not be persuaded to take off his sackcloth, because the sad cause that had made him put it on had not yet ceased, she called the eunuch Hathach, who was then present, and sent him to Mordecai to learn from him what sad accident had happened to him, that he was in mourning and would not take off the dress he had put on, even at her wish. Then Mordecai told the eunuch the reason for his mourning, about the decree the king had sent throughout the country, and about the promise of money by which Haman had bought the destruction of their nation. He also gave him a copy of what had been proclaimed at Susa, to carry to Esther; and he charged her to petition the king about this matter, and not to think it beneath her dignity to put on humble dress for the safety of her nation, and so to plead against the ruin of the Jews, who were in danger of it; for Haman, whose rank was second only to the king’s, had accused the Jews and stirred the king up against them.

When she was told this, she sent to Mordecai again and told him that she had not been called by the king, and that anyone who goes in to him without being called is put to death, unless he is willing to save the person and holds out his golden scepter to him; but whoever he does this for, even though he went in uncalled, is so far from being put to death that he obtains pardon and is entirely safe. When the eunuch brought this message from Esther to Mordecai, Mordecai told him to tell her as well that she must provide not only for her own safety but for the common safety of her nation; for if she neglected this opportunity now, help would certainly arise for them from God some other way, but she and her father’s house would be destroyed by those whom she now disregarded. Then Esther sent the very same eunuch back to Mordecai, asking him to go to Susa, gather the Jews there into an assembly, and fast and abstain from every kind of food for her sake for three days, and letting him know that she and her maids would do the same. Then she promised that she would go to the king, though it was against the law, and that if she must die for it, she would not refuse.

So Mordecai did as Esther had told him and made the people fast, and together with them he begged God not to overlook his nation, especially now when it was about to be destroyed; but as he had often provided for them before, and forgiven them when they had sinned, so now to deliver them from the destruction announced against them. For the nation was in danger of a shameful death not because it had done any wrong; he himself was the cause of Haman’s anger. “It is because I did not bow down to him,” he said, “nor could I bear to pay him the honor I used to pay to you, O Master, that in his anger he has devised this present harm against those who have not broken your laws.” The people made the same supplications, and begged God to provide for their deliverance and to free the Israelites throughout the earth from the calamity now coming upon them; for they had it before their eyes and were expecting it to come. [p]

Esther too made supplication to God in the manner of her country, throwing herself down on the ground, putting on her mourning garments, and saying farewell to food and drink and every delicacy for three days. She begged God to have mercy on her, and to make her words persuasive to the king and her face more beautiful than it had been before, so that by both her words and her beauty she might succeed in turning away the king’s anger, if he was at all angry with her, and in pleading for her own countrymen, now in the utmost danger of perishing; and also that he would stir up in the king a hatred of the enemies of the Jews and of those who had plotted their coming destruction, if they should be scorned by him.

When Esther had prayed in this way for three days, she took off those garments, changed her dress, and adorned herself as befitted a queen. She took two of her maids with her: one supported her as she leaned lightly on her, and the other followed behind, lifting her long train, which swept the ground, with the tips of her fingers. So she came to the king, with a blush on her face and a pleasing grace in her manner; yet she went in to him in fear. As soon as she came opposite him, as he sat on his throne in his royal robes, a garment woven with gold and precious stones, which made him seem all the more terrible to her, especially when he looked at her somewhat severely, with a face burning with anger, her limbs gave way at once from the terror she was in, and she fainted and fell against those at her side. [q]

But the king changed his mind, which happened, I suppose, by the will of God, and was concerned for his wife, afraid that her fear might bring some serious harm on her. He leaped from his throne, took her in his arms and revived her, embracing her and speaking comfortingly to her. He urged her to take heart and not to suspect anything grim because she had come to him without being called, since that law was made for subjects, but she, who was a queen as he was a king, could be entirely secure. As he said this, he put the scepter into her hand and laid his rod on her neck, because of the law, and so freed her from her fear. When she had recovered herself through this encouragement, she said, “My lord, it is not easy for me to say all at once what happened to me; for as soon as I saw you so great, so handsome and so terrible, my spirit left me, and I had no life left in me.” While she was saying this much, with difficulty and in a low voice, the king was in great distress and turmoil, and he encouraged Esther to take heart and expect better fortune, since he was ready, if need be, to grant her half his kingdom. So Esther asked that he and his friend Haman come to her to a banquet, for she said she had prepared a supper for him. He agreed; and when they were there, as they were drinking, he told Esther to let him know what she wanted, for she would not be disappointed even if she asked for half his kingdom. But she put off making her request known until the next day, if he would come again with Haman to her banquet.

When the king had promised to do so, Haman went away very glad, because he alone had had the honor of supping with the king at Esther’s banquet, and no one shared that honor with kings but himself. Yet when he saw Mordecai in the court, he was greatly displeased, for Mordecai paid him no respect of any kind when he saw him. So he went home and called for his wife Zeresh and his friends, and when they had come, he showed them the honor he enjoyed not only from the king but from the queen too: as he alone had supped with her that day, together with the king, so he had also been invited again for the next day. “Yet I am not pleased,” he said, “to see Mordecai the Jew in the court.” At this his wife Zeresh advised him to give orders for a cross to be cut, ninety feet high, and in the morning to ask the king for leave to hang Mordecai on it. He praised her advice and ordered his servants to prepare the cross and set it up in the court for Mordecai’s punishment; and it was prepared. [r]

But God laughed to scorn Haman’s wicked expectations, and as he knew what the outcome would be, he was delighted at it; for that night he took away the king’s sleep. The king, not wanting to waste the time he lay awake but to spend it on something useful to his kingdom, commanded the scribe to bring him the chronicles of the former kings and the records of his own deeds. When he had brought them and was reading them, one man was found to have received a territory for his excellent conduct on a certain occasion, and the name of the territory was written down; another was found to have been given a present for his loyalty. Then the scribe came to Bigthan and Teresh, the eunuchs who had conspired against the king, which Mordecai had uncovered. When the scribe said no more than that and was going on to another entry, the king stopped him and asked whether it was not added that Mordecai had been given a reward. When he said there was no such addition, the king told him to stop. Then he asked those appointed for the purpose what hour of the night it was; and when he was told that it was already day, he ordered that if they found any of his friends already come and standing in front of the court, they should tell him.

Now it happened that Haman was found there, for he had come earlier than usual to ask the king to have Mordecai put to death. When the servants said that Haman was in front of the court, the king told them to call him in; and when he had come in, the king said, “Because I know that you are my only firm friend, I want you to advise me how I may honor someone I greatly love, in a way that suits my magnificence.” Haman reasoned to himself that whatever opinion he gave would be for himself, since it was he alone whom the king loved. So he gave the advice he thought best of all, saying, “If you would truly honor a man whom you say you love, give orders that he ride on horseback wearing the same garment you wear, with a gold chain around his neck, and let one of your close friends go before him and proclaim through the whole city that whoever the king honors receives this mark of his honor.” This was the advice Haman gave, supposing that such a reward would come to himself. The king was pleased with the advice, and said, “Go, then, for you have the horse, the garment and the chain. Ask for Mordecai the Jew, give him these things, and go before his horse proclaiming as you said. For you are my close friend,” he said, “and you have given me good advice; so be the servant of what you have advised me. This shall be his reward from us for saving my life.”

When Haman heard this order, which was entirely unexpected, he was confounded and did not know what to do. However, he went out and led the horse, took the purple garment and the golden chain for the neck, and finding Mordecai in front of the court dressed in sackcloth, told him to take that garment off and put on the purple one. But Mordecai, not knowing the truth of the matter and thinking it was done in mockery, said, “You wretch, vilest of all mankind, are you laughing at our calamities like this?” But when he was satisfied that the king was giving him this honor for the deliverance he had brought him when he exposed the eunuchs who had conspired against him, he put on the purple garment that the king always wore, put the chain around his neck, mounted the horse, and went around the city, while Haman went before him and proclaimed, “This shall be the reward the king will give to everyone he loves and thinks worthy of honor.” When they had gone around the city, Mordecai went in to the king; but Haman went home in shame, and told his wife and friends what had happened, with tears. They said that he would never be able to take revenge on Mordecai, for God was with him.

While they were still talking together in this way, Esther’s eunuchs hurried Haman away to come to supper. But one of the eunuchs, named Sabuchadas, saw the cross set up at Haman’s house and asked one of his servants what they had prepared it for. So he learned that it was for the queen’s uncle, because Haman was about to ask the king to have him punished; but for the present he said nothing. [t]

When the king and Haman were at the banquet, the king asked the queen to tell him what gifts she wished to obtain, and assured her that she would have whatever she had a mind to. Then she lamented the danger her people were in, and said that she and her nation had been handed over to be destroyed, and that this was why she made her petition. She would not have troubled him, she said, if he had only ordered them to be sold into bitter slavery, for such a misfortune would not have been unbearable; but she asked that they be delivered from such destruction. When the king asked her who was the author of this misery to them, she openly accused Haman and proved that he had been the wicked instrument of it and had formed this plot against them.

At this the king was thrown into turmoil and went hastily out of the banquet into the gardens, and Haman began to plead with Esther and beg her to forgive whatever he had done wrong, for he saw that he was in a very bad position. As he had fallen on the queen’s couch and was pleading with her, the king came in, and being still more provoked at what he saw, he said, “You wretch, vilest of mankind, do you mean to force my wife?” Haman was dumbfounded at this and could not say another word. Then Sabuchadas the eunuch came in and accused Haman, saying that he had found a cross at his house prepared for Mordecai, for the servant had told him so when he asked him, when he was sent to call Haman to supper. He said further that the cross was ninety feet high. When the king heard this, he decided that Haman should be punished in no other way than the one he had devised against Mordecai; so he immediately ordered that he be hanged on that cross and put to death in that way. From this I cannot help admiring God, and learning from it his wisdom and his justice, not only in punishing the wickedness of Haman, but in so arranging it that he suffered the very punishment he had devised for another; and also because by this he teaches others the lesson that whatever harm anyone prepares against another, he first devises against himself without knowing it.

So Haman, who had abused beyond all measure the honor he had from the king, was destroyed in this way, and the king gave his estate to the queen. He also called for Mordecai, for Esther had told him that she was related to him, and gave Mordecai the ring he had previously given to Haman. The queen also gave Haman’s estate to Mordecai. And she begged the king to free the nation of the Jews from the fear of death, and showed him what Haman the son of Hammedatha had written throughout the country; for if her country were destroyed and her countrymen were to perish, she could not bear to live any longer herself. So the king promised her that he would do nothing displeasing to her and would not oppose what she wanted. He told her to write whatever she pleased about the Jews in the king’s name, seal it with his seal, and send it to all his kingdom; for those who read letters whose authority is secured by the king’s seal would in no way oppose what was written in them. So he ordered the king’s scribes to be sent for, and to write to the nations on the Jews’ behalf, and to his deputies and the governors over his hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia. The letter read as follows: [v]

“The great king Artaxerxes to our rulers and to our faithful subjects, greeting. There are many men who, because of the greatness of the benefits bestowed on them and the honor they have gained from the wonderful kindness of those who bestowed it, not only wrong those beneath them but do not hesitate to do harm to their own benefactors, as if they would take gratitude away from among men. By their insolent abuse of benefits they never expected, they turn their abundance against those who gave it, and suppose that they will be hidden from God in doing so and escape the vengeance that comes from him. Some of these men, when their friends have entrusted them with the management of affairs, and they bear some private malice of their own against others, deceive those in power and persuade them to be angry with people who have done them no harm, until these are in danger of perishing, and this by laying accusations and slanders. Nor is this state of things to be learned only from ancient examples, or from such as we know by report, but from some examples of such shameless attempts before our own eyes. So it is not right to pay attention any longer to slanders and accusations, or to the persuasions of others, but to decide on what each one knows for himself to have really been done, to punish what justly deserves it, and to show favor to the innocent, attending to the deeds themselves and not to those who report them.

“This has been the case with Haman, the son of Hammedatha, an Amalekite by birth and a foreigner to the blood of the Persians. He was received by us as a guest, and shared in the kindness we bear toward all men to so great a degree that he was called my father, was bowed down to all along, and had honor paid to him by everyone, in the second rank after the royal honor due to ourselves. Yet he could not bear his good fortune, nor govern the greatness of his prosperity with sound reason. No, he plotted to rob me, who gave him his authority, of my kingdom and my life, by trying to do away with Mordecai, my benefactor and my savior, and by basely and treacherously demanding that Esther, the partner of my life and of my rule, be brought to destruction; for by this means he planned to rob me of my faithful friends and transfer the government to others.

“But since I have learned that these Jews, whom this pernicious fellow had marked out for destruction, are not wicked men, but order their lives in the best manner, and are men devoted to the worship of that God who has preserved the kingdom for me and for my ancestors, I not only free them from the punishment that the former letter, sent by Haman, ordered to be inflicted on them, and you will do well not to obey it, but I will that they be paid every honor. Accordingly, I have hanged on a cross the man who devised such things against them, with his family, before the gates of Susa, the punishment being sent upon him by God, who sees all things.

“I charge you to post a copy of this letter publicly throughout my kingdom, so that the Jews may be allowed to live peaceably by their own laws, and that you help them, so that at the very time their misery was fixed for, they may defend themselves on that same day against unjust violence, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar. For God has made that day a day of salvation for them instead of a day of destruction. May it be a good day to those who wish us well, and a reminder of the punishment of those who conspired against us. And I want you to know that every city and every nation that disobeys anything contained in this letter shall be destroyed by fire and sword. Let this letter be published throughout all the country under our rule, and let all the Jews by all means be ready for the day named, so that they may take vengeance on their enemies.”

So the horsemen who carried the letters set out with speed on the roads they were to take. As for Mordecai, as soon as he had put on the royal garment and the crown of gold, and had put the chain around his neck, he went out in a public procession. When the Jews at Susa saw him in such great honor with the king, they thought his good fortune was shared by them as well; and joy and a beam of salvation surrounded the Jews, both those in the cities and those in the countryside, when the king’s letters were published, so much so that many even of other nations had themselves circumcised for fear of the Jews, so that they might secure their own safety by it. For those who carried the king’s letter informed them that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which the Hebrews call Adar and the Macedonians Dystrus, on the very day on which their danger was to have fallen, on that same day they should destroy their enemies. [x]

Now the rulers of the provinces, the local lords, the kings and the scribes held the Jews in respect, for their fear of Mordecai forced them to act with prudence. When the royal decree had reached all the country subject to the king, it turned out that the Jews at Susa killed about five hundred of their enemies. When the king had told Esther the number of those killed in that city, though he did not yet know well what had been done in the provinces, he asked her whether she wanted anything further done against them, for it would be done. At this she asked that the Jews be allowed to treat their remaining enemies in the same way the next day, and also to hang the ten sons of Haman on crosses. The king allowed the Jews to do so, not wishing to refuse Esther. So they gathered again on the fourteenth day of the month Dystrus and killed about three hundred of their enemies, but touched none of the wealth they had.

The Jews in the countryside and in the other cities killed seventy-five thousand of their enemies. These were killed on the thirteenth day of the month, and the next day they kept as a festival. In the same way the Jews in Susa gathered and feasted on the fourteenth day and the one after it. That is why even now all the Jews in the inhabited world keep these days as a festival and send portions to one another. Mordecai also wrote to the Jews living in the kingdom of Artaxerxes to observe these days and celebrate them as festivals, and to hand them down to their descendants, so that this festival might continue for all time to come and never be forgotten. For since they had been about to be destroyed by Haman on these days, they would do right, having escaped the danger on them and on them punished their enemies, to observe those days and give thanks to God on them. For this reason the Jews still keep these days, and call them Phrureae. And Mordecai became a great and distinguished man with the king, and helped him govern the people. He also lived at court with the queen, so that through them the affairs of the Jews were better than they could ever have hoped. This was the state of the Jews under the reign of Artaxerxes.