Synopsis of the Chapter
The letter of Assuerus in which he revokes the previous decree about slaying the Jews, and issues the opposite, namely that the Jews may slaughter their enemies, and that the memory of this day should be celebrated with an annually recurring feast.
The copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes, which he sent on behalf of the Jews to all the provinces of his kingdom: which likewise is not found in the Hebrew scroll.
Verse 6: Deceiving the Simple Ears of Princes with Fraud ¶
Verse 6. While they deceive with cunning fraud the simple ears of princes who judge others according to their own nature. — Hence let princes and anyone else learn not to believe accusations and accusers easily, nor to trust too much in one counselor; but let them hear many, if they wish to know the truth; for "he who believes quickly is light of heart, and shall be diminished." Ecclesiasticus XIX, 4. So Joshua and the Hebrews were deceived by the Gibeonites, because they too easily believed them when they lied. So Holofernes was slain by Judith, because he rashly trusted her. So Samson was betrayed by his Delilah, because he entrusted to her the secret of his strength which resided in his hair. Potiphar rashly believed his wife when she accused Joseph of assault; and Absalom believed Hushai; and Rehoboam believed the young men; and so they were deceived and led to ruin. Finally, Haman aspired to the kingdom of Assuerus because the king had entrusted everything to him. Others did the same in ancient times, and in our own age too, who, while they dominated kings and princes, invaded their territories and kingdoms.
Verse 9: If We Issue Different Commands ¶
Verse 9. Nor should you think, if we issue different commands (revoking the decree of Haman concerning the killing of the Jews), that this comes from fickleness of mind, — so that we might lightly violate or abrogate the law of the Persians, which commands that the decrees of Kings be irrevocable; for the previous decree was not the king's but Haman's, who extorted it from the king by fraud and lies, and therefore it was surreptitious, unjust, and impious, and consequently, the truth now being known, it must be revoked and corrected by the king with this new edict.
Verse 10: Haman, a Macedonian by Nation ¶
Verse 10. Haman, a Macedonian by nation. — For although he was born in Persia, yet he drew his lineage and origin from the Macedonians, and consequently was inclined toward the Macedonians as toward his own countrymen, and was therefore hostile and opposed to the Persians, striving to treacherously transfer the kingdom from them to his Macedonians, as follows.
Verse 12: And Life ¶
Verse 12. And life, — that is, our life.
Verse 14: Transferring the Kingdom of Persia to the Macedonians ¶
Verse 14. That having killed (the Jews and especially Esther and Mordecai, my most faithful friends and guardians of my life) he might plot against our isolation, — so that having deprived me of such faithful protectors, he might kill me by guile and fraud as if I were alone and lacking faithful protection, and seize my kingdom. That this is true is clear from the fact that this letter was dictated not so much by the king as by Esther and Mordecai, who were upright, truthful, and God-fearing, and who from the secret letters of Haman and from the questioning and diligent examination of his accomplices, uncovered and demonstrated Haman's plots and conspiracy against the king. Here that saying in Ecclesiasticus chapter XI, verse 36, is true: "Admit a stranger to yourself, and he will overthrow you in a whirlwind, and will estrange you from your own." See what is said there.
And he might transfer the kingdom of the Persians to the Macedonians. — Hence Scaliger and Serarius think that the Assuerus who was Esther's husband was Artaxerxes, not Longimanus, but Mnemon, under whom lived Philip the father of Alexander the Great, who began to enlarge and make illustrious the kingdom of the Macedonians, which until then was small and obscure.
But I say that by Macedonians here all the Greeks are understood, because among them the Macedonians were preeminent: they therefore are named here before all other Greeks, because Haman was a Macedonian, who consequently would have preferred some Macedonian rather than an Athenian, Spartan, or other Greek to reign instead of the Persians; and Herodotus, book VII, page 183, teaches that the Greeks under Darius Hystaspis were to be feared and had behaved badly toward the Persians. And Diodorus Siculus, book XI, writes that Xerxes, in Olympiad 75, moved arms against the Greeks, who were by then constant and most hostile enemies of the Persian name; whence Xerxes led eleven hundred thousand Persians against them, all of whom were cut down, routed, and put to flight by a few Greeks. And he adds that Xerxes' father Darius had prepared great material for the building of a fleet to be sent against the Greeks. Justinus also, book II, pages 34 and 39, teaches that Darius Hystaspis waged wars against the Athenians, in which war he asserts the valor and glory of the young Themistocles already shone forth. Finally, four years before his death, this Darius fought with the Greeks at Marathon, in a battle most famous in Greek and Roman histories, as Severus Sulpitius also noted, book II, page 68.
Josippus Gorionides agrees, and adds that those two eunuchs who conspired against Assuerus, and were therefore reported by Mordecai and hanged, had intended to deliver the head of Assuerus or Artaxerxes to the king of the Greeks, to curry favor with him: and that these eunuchs were relatives of Haman; for at that time (being long before Philip and Alexander) the Macedonian empire was still most obscure; hence Haman the Macedonian wished to make it illustrious by transferring to himself and his Macedonians the most noble empire, indeed monarchy, of Darius and the Persians; as Alexander the Great later actually transferred it.
Verse 16: By God's Favor the Kingdom Was Given to Our Ancestors ¶
Verse 16. By whose (God's) favor the kingdom was given both to our fathers and to us. — By fathers understand the preceding kings, especially Cyrus, to whom God through Isaiah, chapter XLV, verse 1, predicted and promised the kingdom, and Cyrus acknowledged this, and therefore set the Jews free from Babylon, I Ezra I, 1. Our Darius here also acknowledged the same, as is clear from this passage and from III Ezra IV, 43 and following.
Verse 18: His Kindred Hang on Gibbets ¶
Verse 18. And all his kindred hang on gibbets. — Note: "kindred," that is, his relatives; for the sons of Haman in the ninth month after this edict, namely in the last month Adar, were killed and hanged, as I said in chapter IX, verse 13; because, as Ammianus says, book XXV, the laws among the Persians were exceedingly feared, "since through them, for the crime of one, all his relatives perished."
Verse 22: Among Your Other Feast Days ¶
Verse 22. Among your other feast days. — For the Persians had their own festivals, especially those dedicated to Mithras, that is, the Sun, whom they worshipped as God. Such also was the festival for the slaughter of the Magi, which this Darius, succeeding the Magi in the kingdom, had ordered to be celebrated perpetually, as Herodotus testifies, book III. Moreover, it is not surprising that Darius ordered this festival of the victory of the Jews to be celebrated also by the Eastern Persians, both because he himself was entirely devoted to his Esther and Mordecai, and because he himself had already acknowledged and worshipped the true God of the Hebrews, as is clear from verse 16.
Verse 24: Let Them Be Destroyed by Sword and Fire ¶
Verse 24. Chapter XVI. — That is, the city and province that refuses to share in this solemnity shall perish by sword and fire.