Esther — Chapter 7

Postquam vino incaluerat — Darius enim

For Darius was a wine-bibber. Hence this inscription was placed on his tomb: \"I was able to drink a great deal of wine and carry it well,\" as Athenaeus bk. X records. Seneca bk. III De Ira ch. 14 relates that Cambyses was warned by Prexaspes about his excessive wine-drinking, to which Cambyses responded by shooting the son of Prexaspes through the heart with an arrow, to prove that his aim was not affected by wine. \"Such are the stories of kings made slaves by wine.\"

Dona mihi animam meam, id est vitam

Give me my life for which I pray, and my people for whom I beseech. This was the sharp dart with which Esther pierced Assuerus, and even more Haman — as if to say: \"That Haman by fraud obtained from you a decree to kill all the Jews; therefore I too, being a Jewess, must be killed by him, and thus you will be deprived of me your queen, whose bed you so eagerly sought and still seek. Therefore, Haman is injurious and violent not so much against me as against you, O Assuerus my king and husband, and equally cunning and deceitful.\"

Atque utinam in servos et famulas

If only we had been sold as servants and handmaids — would that our lives had been spared so that at least we might serve the king and the Persians as servants and slaves! \"But now our enemy is one whose cruelty is a harm to the king\" — both because by his edict to kill the Jews, who enrich the royal treasury with enormous tribute and provide many strong soldiers for the defense of the king and realm (as Daniel and his three companions were made prefects of provinces), Haman deprives the king of those benefits; and he also heaps upon him grave and lasting infamy before all nations for exterminating our innocent and deserving people.

Dixitque Esther: Hostis et inimicus noster

And Esther said: The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Note here the magnanimity of Esther, who did not accuse the absent Haman in secret (as timid and vile little women do) but openly accused the present man before Assuerus, so that the king might know the accusation was sincere and true, which Haman could not deny. Hence struck as if by lightning by this unexpected accusation, Haman was stupefied and fell silent. Let princes learn from Esther not to fear the power and insolence of the great, but to suppress and tread it down. Seneca in Hercules Furens: \"The first art of ruling is to be able to bear and endure hatred.\" And in Oedipus: \"He who fears hatreds too much does not know how to reign.\"

Reperit Aman super lectulum corruisse

The king returned from the garden and found Haman fallen upon the couch (not a bedroom couch for sleep, but a banquet couch on which guests reclined at table) on which Esther lay — as a suppliant prostrating himself at her knees to beg that his life be spared. St. Athanasius in the Synopsis: \"Haman, seeing the king grieved and angered by the unworthy crime against the Jews, in the king's absence supplicated the queen, prostrating himself at her knees.\" And the king said: \"Would he also force the queen with me present in my own house?\" The king said this partly from anger, partly from jealousy (for he was passionately in love with Esther), which is suspicious of evil and rivals even when in reality there is nothing such. He therefore suspected that Haman wished to \"oppress\" Esther — meaning not so much to threaten her life as to violate her chastity. Immediately they covered Haman's face, both because one whose face the king found hateful deserved not to see the royal face, and because Haman was already condemned and about to die — for in ancient times those condemned to capital punishment were led to death with their eyes blindfolded.

Dixitque Harbona, unus de eunuchis

Harbona, one of the eunuchs, said: \"Behold the gibbet which Haman had prepared for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, stands in Haman's house fifty cubits high.\" Harbona was the eunuch who had been sent by the king to summon Haman to Esther's banquet; entering Haman's house, he saw the gibbet, and from Haman's domestics — as Josephus says — he learned that Haman had erected it for Mordecai. Hence he now informs the king, seeing that the king was offended with Haman, and being himself hostile to Haman's arrogance, he wished to see him removed and hanged.

Suspensus est itaque Aman, in patibulo

Haman was not hanged in his own house but at the gate of the city of the Susans, as is said in ch. 16 v. 18 — for the gallows was moved from Haman's house to the gate to increase his ignominy, so that everyone entering and leaving the city would see him hanging there as a spectacle and mockery, he who a short time before had been worshiped as a god by all. Some think Haman was nailed to the cross; others that a noose was placed around his neck as is done today — nothing certain on this point. This much is certain: the cross was fifty cubits high, so that he who had sought the highest place would hang highest and be visible to all. See here first how efficacious were the fasts and prayers of Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews; second, how true is that of the Blessed Virgin: \"He has put down the mighty from their seats and exalted the humble\"; third, how unstable and vain are all worldly things — behold how suddenly the highest becomes the lowest and the lowest becomes the highest; fourth, how evil that one unjustly schemes against another returns upon the schemer, and by the just judgment of God falls back upon his own head. For the cross prepared for Mordecai was given to the one who prepared it.