Esther — Chapter 15

Et mandavit ei ut ingrederetur ad regem

And he (undoubtedly Mordecai) commanded her to go in to the king, and to pray for her people and her country. He said: \"Remember the days of your humility, how you were nourished in my hand, because Haman, second to the king, has spoken against us to death; and you call upon the Lord, and speak to the king for us, and deliver us from death.\"

Die autem tertio deposuit vestimenta ornatus

On the third day she laid aside the garments of her mourning — the modest and mournful garments with which she was clothed for lamentation and penance (in Greek: \"she laid aside the garments of mourning\"). \"And she was encompassed with her glory\" — that is, she dressed herself in the glorious royal crown and other golden and gem-adorned royal garments.

Et super unam quidem innitebatur, quasi

She leaned upon one of her maids, as though from delicacy and excessive tenderness unable to sustain the weight of her own body. Esther assumed this appearance of delicacy in order to move Assuerus to pity. And truly she was tender and weak, both from her sex, her fast, and her fear — hence she actually fainted.

Ipsa autem roseo colore vultum perfusa

She concealed her troubled soul and her heart contracted with great fear — for she knew Darius to be terrible and his edict for the slaughter of the Jews, once promulgated by the law of the Persians, could not be revoked; and that it was a capital offense to approach the king uninvited. Therefore, knowing she faced certain mortal danger, she was filled with fear and trepidation lest things go badly and the angry king would immediately command his edict for the slaughter of the Jews to be carried out. Hence follows in v. 10 that the king looked upon her with burning and furious eyes indicating the fury of his heart.

Ingressa igitur cuncta per ordinem ostia

Passing through all the doors in order, she stood before the king. It is probable that the trembling Esther did not come close to the king but, terrified by his terrible aspect, stood far off at the doorway that was across from the king sitting on his throne. Hence in ch. 5 v. 1 she is said to have stood \"in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's hall.\" He had conceived his anger, as Josephus and also Josephus say, because Esther had come to him uninvited, against the law.

Cumque elevasset faciem, et ardentibus

When he raised his face and showed with burning eyes the fury of his heart — because he had conceived anger at Esther for entering uninvited against the law. \"The queen fainted and grew pale, and leaned her weary head upon her little maid.\" Some suspect she feigned this fainting to soften the king's anger. But the pallor and what followed show it was real — for she came, as was shown above, seized with great fear; then seeing the king with such majesty and flashing furious eyes looking at her, struck with terror, she fell down as if lifeless. For royal majesty wonderfully strikes those approaching it.

Convertitque Deus spiritum regis in mansuetudinem

And God turned the spirit of the king to mildness — both through the pitiful sight of the queen fainting, and through an interior instinct and impulse by which he bent him to compassion, changing anger into gentleness and kindness. \"The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord; wherever he wills, he will turn it\" (Prov. 21:1). Especially because Assuerus saw that Esther had not come out of contempt, as he had thought, but showed the greatest fear and reverence (for this is what kings seek), so that from reverence and trembling she fainted and suffered a swoon. \"And he sprang up from his throne in haste and fear, and holding her in his arms until she recovered, comforted her with these words: What is the matter, Esther? I am your brother, do not fear.\"

Quid habes, Esther? Ego sum frater tuus

What is the matter, Esther? I am your brother — that is, your husband, who loves you not as a lord and master but as a brother, companion, and equal. Note that spouses sometimes address each other as brother and sister — partly for chastity and purity, partly for goodwill and close conjugal love, especially because the first marriages in the world after Adam and Eve were between brothers and sisters. Thus in Canticles the spouse is called \"sister\" by the bridegroom. And the Persians used to take their sisters as wives.

Et osculatus est eam, quasi sponsam

And he kissed her as a beloved spouse, to restore her to herself through these endearments. Here Esther represents the Blessed Virgin, who approaching Assuerus — that is, God angered at the whole human race on account of the sins of Adam and his descendants — with two maidens (the double creature, namely angelic and human, as St. Bonaventure in the Mirror ch. 3 says), and mystically with two virtues — active and contemplative — and supplicating him, fell as if in a swoon from holy reverence and awe of the divine majesty; but God comforting and kissing her granted what she requested, namely the salvation of the human race, and therefore gave her his Son, who taking flesh in her became the expiatory sacrifice and Redeemer of the world.

Vidi te, domine, quasi Angelum Dei

I saw you, my lord, as the Angel of God — shining with angelic majesty and splendor, and therefore inspiring me and others with awe and terror. Hence Chosroes king of Persia, a pagan whom Emperor Heraclius vanquished, ordered a wonderful sphere to be built beside him, in which angels stood around the king. Theophanes relates, and Baronius draws from him in the eighth year of Christ 622: \"Heraclius, having conquered Chosroes, found the abominable idol of Chosroes — his image in the form of a globe under the vault of the palace as though seated in heaven, with the sun, moon, and stars around him which that superstitious man worshiped as gods, with scepter-bearing angels standing around him, and machines which from that place sent forth drops as if of rain and made a sound like thunder.\"

Et facies tua plena est gratiarum

And your face is full of graces — full of beauty, splendor, magnificence, and majesty more angelic and divine than human. By this reverence and flattery Esther mollified Assuerus and entirely bound him to herself, so that he would grant whatever she requested.