Esther — Chapter 14

Esther quoque regina confugit ad Dominum

Queen Esther also took refuge with the Lord, fearing the danger that was threatening — in Greek \"seized in the agony of death,\" the same kind of agony and last prayer as Christ's in Gethsemane. She laid aside her royal garments, put on garments fit for tears and mourning, poured ashes and dung on her head instead of various ointments, and humbled her body with fasting; filling all the places in which she was accustomed to be glad with the tearing of her hair. The Hebrews call the fast appointed by Esther on the 13th of Adar \"Taanith Esther,\" meaning the \"humiliation\" or \"fast of Esther.\" St. Ambrose, Ep. 88: \"Esther made the proud king bow down by her fasts.\"

Humiliavit jejuniis — corpus suum humiliavit

She humbled her body with fasting — the Hebrew word for \"fasting\" here means \"humiliation of the body,\" for nothing so depresses the flesh as fasting. The ancient custom of tearing hair in great calamity and lamentation (along with clapping hands, striking the breast, scratching cheeks) was common in antiquity, as Ezra narrates of himself (1 Esd. 9), and as Josephus relates of Alexandra and Salome.

Adjuva me solitariam, et cujus praeter te

Help me, who am alone and have no other helper but you. \"Alone\": both because in the gentile king's court I am the only Jewess; and because I am destitute of all human help (as follows); and because I desire the conversation and consolation of no man but 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 little orphan girl who begs door to door, so I beg your mercies window to window\" — for on that account the Jews used to ascend to the roof terraces and look into heaven through the windows, expecting from God the help of such great affliction.

Periculum meum in manibus meis est

My danger is in my hands — meaning it is most immediate and supreme; for what is carried in the hands can easily be spilled or snatched and taken away by a thief or enemy. Thus David fleeing Saul says (Ps. 118:109): \"My soul is in my hands\" — meaning my life is in greatest danger, so that I seem to carry it in my hand, offering it to anyone who wishes to take it.

Coluimus enim deos eorum. Justus es, Domine

We worshiped their gods. You are just, O Lord — not I but our ancestors in Jerusalem under Manasseh and other idolatrous kings. Thus Josippus Gorionides.

Robur manuum suarum idolorum potentiae

They impute the strength of their hands to the power of idols — as Josippus translates: \"Behold they (Haman and his followers) do not say you gave us into their hands, O Lord, but they credit it to their idols (Mithra, i.e., the sun).\"

Volunt tua mutare promissa, et delere

They wish to change your promises — with which you promised Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. that you would be our God and protector — \"and to destroy your inheritance\" — the people of Israel who acknowledge and worship you alone as their God and Lord — \"and to extinguish the glory of your temple and altar\" — recently rebuilt in Jerusalem by this same Assuerus, i.e., Darius Hystaspes (1 Esd. 6). For if Haman had persuaded Darius to kill all the Jews in Persia, his hatred would not have stopped there but he would have had Jerusalem and the temple destroyed as well.

Et praedicent carnalem regem in sempiternum

And that they might proclaim the carnal king — Darius or Haman, who dominates us as a king and tyrant — \"in sempiternum\": \"that they might boast that they, more powerful than you, killed and exterminated us all.\"

Ne tradas, Domine, sceptrum tuum his qui

Do not deliver your scepter, O Lord, to those who are not — that is, to false gods and idols who are no gods, lest divine power be attributed to them as if through them Haman, who worships them, might destroy us; lest demons triumph over you, O Lord, and be worshiped in your place as gods.

Tribue sermonem compositum in ore meo

Grant me fitting speech in my mouth in the presence of the lion — meaning, so compose and arrange my words in my mouth that I may soften the spirit of Darius my husband who is terrible as a lion, and bend him to mercy on me and my Jews. Hence St. Augustine in bk. I De Doctrina Christiana ch. 15 teaches that the preacher should before his sermon ask of God the very same thing that Esther asks here — that God might so compose the words in his mouth that they may penetrate, strike, and compel the minds of his hearers. See Esther approaching Darius uninvited, trembling like a deer before a lion about to devour her, and therefore wholly afflicted and compunctious, most ardently imploring and obtaining the help of God alone.

Nosti quia oderim gloriam iniquorum et

You know that I hate the glory of the wicked, and I detest the bed of the uncircumcised and of all foreigners — meaning: because I am faithful and a worshiper of God, I detest conjugal union with Darius the infidel and idolater; yet I admit and permit it, compelled by necessity, to reconcile him to me and my Jews.

Tu scis necessitatem meam, quod abominer

You know my necessity — by which I am compelled to adorn myself as queen in the Persian manner to please my husband the king, which I would certainly not do were I not driven by this necessity. Hence St. Augustine in Ep. 199 to Ecdicia reproves her for wishing to please God alone and, with indiscreet zeal, assuming the habit of a nun and distributing her goods to the poor without her husband's knowledge, thereby displeasing him and giving him occasion for adultery. Esther calls the royal crown and tiara \"the sign of my pride\" — for this she wore high and glittering with gold and gems on her head like a tower, calling it \"as detestable as a menstruous cloth,\" i.e., as a cloth infected with menstrual blood, which is most sordid, most fetid, poisonous, and absolutely abominable (as Pliny bk. VII ch. 19 shows at length).

Et quod non comederim in mensa Aman

And I did not eat at Haman's table, and the king's feast did not please me, and I have not drunk the wine of the libations — that is, offered and poured to idols.

Et nunquam laetata sit ancilla tua ex quo

And never has your handmaid rejoiced from the day when she was transferred here to the present day, except in you, Lord God of Abraham. Just as Abraham believed in the one God, hoped in him alone, and placed all his good in him so as to rejoice in nothing else but God and in God; so I too never rejoiced in royal honor and ornament, nor in royal riches and delights (which are paltry, fleeting, and vain), but in you alone, O Lord God. You are my every honor, every beauty, every pleasure, every abundance, every sweetness, every good — solid, stable, immense, and eternal. Great was Esther's purity of soul, sincerity, charity, and holiness, as is clear from these words.