(1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther)
Week of 25 December 2007
1 Chronicles
The two books of Chronicles are dated after the Exile (after 539). Much of the material in these books repeats, sometimes exactly, material in the books of Kings. Yet there are differences, including additions and omissions. Chronicles is focused mostly on Judah; all reference to Israel concerns Judah. Since Israel (the ten northern tribes) had ceased to exist, with no promise of return, it no longer concerned the Chronicler. Israel's future lay with the House of David. So begins the Jewish quest for an anointed king: a Messiah, from the house of David. So Chronicles is an idealized version of Jewish history. Its concern is mainly with "all Israel" represented by the house of David and his son Solomon. "All Israel" suggests a united monarchy, which as we saw in Kings, never was. Missing here are all David's faults (adultery with Bathsheba, etc.); the battle for succession (both David and Solomon peaceably receive their crowns), etc. The focus in Kings is on sin (why God punished the Hebrew people); the focus in Chronicles is on repentance (why God will forgive the Hebrew people). By the time of Chronicles, Cyrus, the Persian, had conquered Babylon, ending the fifty-year Babylonian Captivity, inviting the Jews to restore their temple in Jerusalem. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah are related to Chronicles, advancing the story of the restoration of the Jews in Jerusalem and Judah.1
1: Adam, Seth, Enosh;
4: Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Chronicles begins on the first genealogies, to remind the Jews after the exile and to insure a continuous history with meaning. These books are full of such genealogies, omitted here. But the focus is mainly on the house of David, with its eternal promise of a Messiah (anointed king).
13: Saul died for his unfaithfulness; he was unfaithful to the LORD,
Saul is almost dismissed in Chronicles, concerned mainly with the House of David. Note there is no battle for the kingdom here. David gets the crown easily, from God.
14: Therefore the LORD slew him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.
11
1: Then all Israel gathered together to David at Hebron, and said, "Behold, we are your bone and flesh.
Note the idealized unity here, which Kings contradicts. In Kings we get constant tribal feuds, omitted here. The phrase, "all Israel" suggests a unity of the northern and southern kingdoms that is proved false by Kings (a more truthful record).
12
38: . . . . [A]ll the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David king.
Again, note the clause, "all the rest of Israel were of a single mind," as if to create an ideal unity of mind in choosing David as king (not so, says Kings).
20
1: In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, Jo'ab led out the army. But David remained at Jerusalem.
In Kings this is the point where David lusts after Bathsheba; here this is omitted. The writer of Chronicles wants to idealize David.
5: And there was again war with the Philistines; and Elha'nan the son of Ja'ir slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
Note how the writer corrects the "mistake" of 2 Samuel 21:19, where it is said that Elhanan slew Goliath, contradicting 1 Samuel 17:49 where it is said that David slew Goliath. Consistency is reached here by saying that Elhanan slew the "brother" of Goliath.
21
1: Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to number Israel.
In 2 Samuel 24:1 it is God who tempts David. This was unacceptable to the Chronicler, who makes Satan tempt David. But this introduces a "dualism" into Hebrew thought; namely, that there are two equal powers in the world: God and Satan. Soon "Satan" becomes a main adversary of God, especially in the New Testament, where Satan offers Jesus the world (presumably the world belongs to Satan).
29
23: Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king; and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.
Note again the reference to "all Israel" and "all the leaders and sons of David" (v. 24). This omits the family battles for the crown and Solomon's bloodbath, killing his own family and David's enemies.
24: All the leaders and the mighty men, and also all the sons of King David, pledged their allegiance to King Solomon.
28: Then David died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor; and Solomon his son reigned in his stead.
Compare the simple report of David's death in 1 Kings 2:10: "Then David rested with his fathers."
2 Chronicles
1
3: And Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for the tent of meeting of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness, was there.
Compare with 1 Kings 3:4: "The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place. . . ." Here there's no doubt that Solomon prays before the "tent of meeting" (the tabernacle established by Moses). The writer has changed details to make Solomon look as good as possible. Compare again with 1 Kings 3:3: "Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places." "High places" are forbidden places of worship.
24
20: Then the Spirit of God took possession of Zechari'ah [prophet]; and he said, "Thus says God, `Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.'"
21: But they conspired against him, and by command of the king [of Judah, Jo'ash] they stoned him in the court of the house of the LORD.
22: And when he was dying, he said, "May the LORD see and avenge!"
23: At the end of the year the army of the Syrians came up against Jo'ash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent their spoil to the king of Damascus.
24: Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men, the LORD delivered into their hand a very great army, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Zechariah's curse was fulfilled. Jesus refers to the murder of Zechariah in Matthew 23:35 but confuses this Zechariah with the minor prophet ("son of Bechariah").
2 Chronicles, chapter 28
The following story likely influenced Jesus' parable of "The Good Samaritan" in the Gospel of LUKE:
1: Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did evil in the sight of the LORD:
2: For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made molten images for Baalim [gods of Ba'al].
3: Moreover, he sacrificed his sons in the fire, after the practice of the heathen.
5: Sothe LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
8: And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
9: But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was angered by Judah, he delivered them into your hand, and you have killed them in a rage that reaches up unto heaven.
10: And now you plan to keep them as slaves: but are there not with you also sins against God?
11: Now free these captives: for the anger of the LORD is upon you.
14: So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and the people.
15: And the men which were called by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and gave them to eat and drink, and anointed them, and carried the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.
33
9: Manas'seh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so they did more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.
11: Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manas'seh with hooks and bound him with fetters of bronze and brought him to Babylon.
12: And he humbled himself before the God of his fathers.
13: He prayed to him, and God heard his prayer and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manas'seh knew that the LORD was God.
In 2 Kings 21,Manasseh is completely evil. But the Chronicler was puzzled by the king's worldly success and long reign (55 years!). So he assumes the king's repentance. Verse 13 inspired the apocryphal Prayer of Manasseh, supposedly Manasseh's words of repentance, quoted in my commentary on 2 Kings.
35
Though Josiah is praised in both Kings and Chronicles, the Chronicler must "explain" why Josiah died young, so gives a reason:
20: Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Car'chemish and Josi'ah went against him.
21: But [Neco] sent envoys to him, saying, "What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to make haste. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you."
22: Nevertheless Josi'ah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of Megid'do.
23: And the archers shot King Josi'ah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am badly wounded."
The Chronicler "explains" Josiah's death by saying his battle against Neco was against "the mouth of God." There is no mention of this in 2 Kings 29ff.
36
20: [King of Babylon] took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword,
21: to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfil seventy years.
Note the ironic reference: since the people observed no Sabbaths, God forces them to observe the 70 Sabbaths they missed! This refers to Jeremiah's prophecy (the book of Jeremiah) of "seventy years" (that is, from the Babylonian Captivity in 586 to the dedication of the Second Temple (516-515 BCE).
22: Now the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so he proclaimed in all his kingdom:
23: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, `The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.'"
Cyrus is under God's control (he's called Messiah in Isaiah). Chronicles ends the Hebrew Bible (Malachi ends the Old Testament in the Christian arrangement). Thus the Hebrew Bible ends on hope, based on rebuilding the Temple. Since Christians found their hope in Jesus, not the temple, they arranged the Old Testament differently; Malachi speaks of a "curse," which suited the Christian need for a redeemer. Now begins the post-exile, seen as ordained by God, through Cyrus:
1
1: In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
2: "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
3: Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel -- he is the God who is in Jerusalem."
5: Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, every one whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.
7: Cyrus the king also brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD which Nebuchadnez'zar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.
3
2: Then arose Jeshua [high priest]with his fellow priests, and Zerub'babel [governor] with his kinsmen; they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses man of God.
4
1: Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel,
2: they approached Zerub'babel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, "Let us build with you; for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of the king of Assyria who brought us here."
But the Samaritan religion would be syncretistic, a blend of many religions:
3: But Zerub'babel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us."
4: Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build,
6: And in the reign of Ahasu-e'rus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
It is assumed that Ahasuerus is another name for Xerxes (fifth century BCE Persian leader).
7: The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.
11: "To Ar-ta-xerx'es the king: Your servants, the men of the province Beyond the River [the Euphrates], send greeting. And
12: know that the Jews who came up from you to us have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city.
15: You will find in the book of the records and learn that this city is a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and that sedition was stirred up in it from of old. That was why this city was laid waste."
24: Then the work on the house of God which is in Jerusalem stopped; and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
5
5: But the eye of God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them till a report should reach Darius and then answer be returned by letter concerning it.
6: The copy of the letter sent to Darius the king;
7: "To Darius the king, all peace.
17: "If it seem good to the king, let search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem."
6
2: And a scroll was found on which this was written: "A record.
3: In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt,
7: let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site."
15: This house was finished in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
7
1: Now after this, in the reign of Ar-ta-xerx'es king of Persia, Ezra
6: went up from Babylonia. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses which the LORD the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all he asked, for the hand of the LORD was upon him.
11: This is a copy of the letter which King Ar-ta-xerx'es gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, learned in matters of the commandments of the LORD and his statutes for Israel:
12: "Ar-ta-xerx'es, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven.
21: "I, Ar-ta-xerx'es the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, be it done with all diligence,
23: Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons."
The Persian policy was to befriend as many gods as possible, hoping for blessings from all of them.
9
1: The officials approached me and said, "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations.
2: For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons; so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands."
3: When I heard this, I tore my clothes, and pulled hair from my head and beard.
5: At the evening sacrifice I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God,
6: saying: "O my God, our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.
7: And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as at this day."
This concerns intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews.
10
2: And Shecani'ah addressed Ezra: "We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
3: Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children and let it be done according to the law."
44: All who had married foreign women put them away with their children.
Some scholars claim the book of Ruth was written in answer to this policy, seen as "inhumane."
Nehemiah
1
2: that Hana'ni, one of my brethren, came with certain men out of Judah.
3: They said to me, "The survivors in the province who escaped exile are in trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates destroyed by fire."
5: And I said, "O LORD God of heaven,
8: Remember the word which thou didst command thy servant Moses, saying, `If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples;
9: but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your dispersed be under the farthest skies, I will gather them thence and bring them to the place which I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.'
Note the emphasis on repentance and restoration.
11: O Lord, listen to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants who delight to fear thy name; and give success to thy servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Now I was cupbearer to the king.
The cupbearer usually tasted the wine to test against poison.
2
1: When wine was before King Ar-ta-xerx'es, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.
2: And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart."
3: I said to the king, "Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres [tombs], lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?"
5: And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may rebuild it."
6: So it pleased the king to send me.
15: Then I went up in the night and inspected the wall and returned.
17: Then I said, "You see how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer disgrace."
19: But when Sanbal'lat the Hor'onite and Tobi'ah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked us and despised us and said, "What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?"
4
7: But when they heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward,
8: they plotted against Jerusalem to cause confusion.
16: From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail.
Nehemiah is a useful text to inspire completion of difficult tasks. Here nothing could stop Nehemiah rebuilding the wall. In this he resembles Joshua who, as the spiritual says, "never stopped his work until his work was done."
5
7: I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. "You are exacting interest, each from his brother." And I held a great assembly against them,
8: and said, "We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brethren who have been sold to the nations; but you even sell your brethren that they may be sold to us!" They were silent, and could not find a word to say.
9: So I said, "The thing you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?
This is a theme of social oppression that will occupy the later prophets (Amos was outspoken about this). Hebrew law was based on a kind of socialism, preventing class differences, including laws for a Jubilee year returning land to its original owners, etc.
11: Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the hundredth of money, grain, wine, and oil which you have been exacting of them."
12: Then they said, "We will do as you say."
13: I shook out my lap and said, "So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not perform this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied." And all the assembly said "Amen" and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.
"Amen" means "certainly," as in the Gospel refrain, "Certainly, Lord."
6
15: So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.
16: And the nations round about us were afraid and fell in their own esteem; for they saw this work was accomplished with the help of our God.
8
5: And Ezra opened the book [of Moses] in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people [standing on a pulpit]; and when he opened it the people stood.
6: And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God; and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands; and they worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
8: And they read from the book and gave the sense, so the people understood the reading.
By this time, many Jews did not understand Hebrew, so the text had to be translated and "explained."
9
2: And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
6: And Ezra said: "Thou art the LORD, thou alone.
26: "Nevertheless [your people] were disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their back and killed thy prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to thee.
30: Therefore thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
33: Yet thou hast been just in all that has come upon us, for thou hast dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly;
36: Behold, we are slaves in the land thou gavest to our fathers.
37: And its rich yield goes to the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies, and we are in great distress."
38: Because of all this we make a covenant and write it, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests set their seal to it.
The people rededicate themselves to God's covenant.
10
30: We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons;
31: and if the peoples of the land bring in wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or on a holy day; and we will forego the crops of the seventh year and every debt.
11
1: Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem; and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one of ten to live in Jerusalem the holy city, while nine tenths remained in the other towns.
2: And the people blessed all who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.
This action will be repeated during the Zionist repopulation of Israel in the early part of the 20th century.
13
19: When it began to be dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I ordered the doors should be shut and not opened until after the sabbath.
23: In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab;
24: and half their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but the language of each people.
25: And I cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take oath in the name of God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
30: Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work;
31: Remember me, O my God, for good.
Esther
1
The book of Esther is dated between the Persian period (5th century BCE) up to the second or first century BCE. It's fiction (like the book of Ruth) and the only book in the Bible not to mention "God." So text was added in later translations. The emphasis in the original is on luck and Esther's beauty; additions show Esther's devotion to God. "Ahasuerus" is another name for King Xerxes I. (A previous Persian king, Cyrus, liberated the Jews from Babylonian captivity in 539 BCE.)Esther tells the story of a plot against Jews in the Persian kingdom (during the diaspora, or dispersion of the Jews), which, by a lucky reversal, punishes the plotter (Haman) rather than the Jews. The story is built on reversals. The day for killing all the Jews is based on luck, or throwing lots. The Hebrew word for lot is "pur" (lots: purim). So Esther is read on the Feast of Purim in March. Scholars agree the book is "etiological": The holiday was the Persian New Year, which Jews explained as a Jewish holiday.
The king seems so stupid he believes what officials tell him; he orders the killing of a whole people but doesn't remember it. It's a lesson in the dangers of modern bureaucracy, where common sense and justice are lost in a maze of official business.
Irony is used: Haman is hung on the gallows he built to kill his enemy. Trying to degrade Mordecai, he raises him in the king's eyes. Begging for his life from Esther, Haman looks like he's assaulting her, so loses his life. And so on.
Mordecai is from the tribe of Benjamin. Haman is an Agagite (after King Agag of the Amalekites). Saul lost his kingdom because Samuel told him to kill King Agag during the war; Saul did not, so God rejected Saul. This tale reverses the mistake Saul made. This time the Amalekites are punished, through Haman.
2: In those days when King Ahasu-e'rus [Xerxes] sat on his royal throne in Susa the capital,
3: in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for the nobles,
10: On the seventh day he commanded his seven eunuchs
11: to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty.
12: But Queen Vashti refused. The king was enraged.
13: Then he said to the wise men,
15: "According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti?"
16: Then Memu'can said to the king and princes,
17: "This deed of the queen will be made known to all women, causing them to look with contempt upon their husbands.'
19: If it please the king, let a royal order go forth from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be altered, that Vashti is to come no more before King Ahasu-e'rus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she."
The motif of a law not allowed to be changed becomes important later.
2
6: who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconi'ah [Jehoiakin] king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon had carried away.
This is the first Babylonian deportation, 597, ten years before Judah fell to the Babylonians (587/6 BCE).
7: He had brought up Hadas'sah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had no father or mother; she was beautiful and lovely.
8: When the king's order was proclaimed, Esther was taken into the king's palace and put in custody of Hegai who had charge of the women.
10: Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mor'decai had charged her not to make it known.
16: And when Esther was taken to King Ahasu-e'rus into his royal palace,
17: the king loved Esther more than all the women, so he made her queen instead of Vashti.
21: As Mor'decai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasu-e'rus.
22: And he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mor'decai.
23: The men were hanged. And it was recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king.
3
1: After these things King Ahasu-e'rus promoted Haman the Ag'agite, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
2: And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down to Haman. But Mor'decai did not bow.
5: Haman was filled with fury.
6: So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews.
7: In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasu-e'rus, they cast Pur, that is the lot, before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.
This is where the Feast of Purim ("lots") gets its name; it was adopted from a Persian feast and given special meaning for Jews. Purim is celebrated today as a joyful feast, when the Jews saved themselves. On the evening and morning of this feast, the "megillah" (scroll) of Esther is read.
8: Then Haman said to King Ahasu-e'rus, "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws, so it is not for the king's profit to tolerate them.
9: If it please the king, let it be decreed they be destroyed."
13: Letters were sent to all the king's provinces, to destroy all Jews in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to seize their goods.
Note the satiric voice against Persian laws. Although laws are passed and there is a great system of advertising those laws, the laws are ridiculous and unjust (as we saw in other parts of the story); so the book of Esther may be a satire on unjust laws compared to God's law.
4
4: The queen was distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mor'decai, so he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.
5: Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, and ordered him to ask Mor'decai what this was and why.
10: [Once told], Esther gave Hathach a message for Mor'decai, saying,
11: "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if anyone goes to the king without being called, all are to put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter. And I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days."
12: And they told Mor'decai what Esther said.
13: Then Mor'decai told them to return answer to Esther, "Think not that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.
14: If you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
There is no mention of God, but there is fasting before Esther does her deed.
15: Then Esther told them to reply to Mor'decai,
16: "Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."
5
2: and she found favor in his sight and he held out to Esther the golden scepter. Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.
3: And the king said, "What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom."
4: And Esther said, "If it please the king, let the king and Haman come this day to a dinner that I have prepared for the king."
It's not clear why she doesn't ask her favor now. Perhaps she's trying to soften him up..
5: Then said the king, "Bring Haman, that we may do as Esther desires." So the king and Haman came.
6: As they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, "What is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled."
7: But Esther said, "My petition and my request is:
8: If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and fulfil my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the dinner which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said."
There is a fairy tale quality to these repeats. Below we get one of many ironies: when Haman thinks things are in his favor, they're turning against him. He thinks he's advancing in the king's court because the queen has invited him to dinner; the truth is the reverse.
9: And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. But when he saw Mor'decai in the king's gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with anger.
10: Still Haman restrained himself, and went home; and he sent and fetched his friends and his wife Zeresh.
11: And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and the servants of the king.
12: And Haman added, "Even Queen Esther let no one come with the king to the banquet she prepared but myself. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king.
13: Yet all this does me no good, so long as I see Mor'decai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."
14: Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, "Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mor'decai hanged upon it; then go merrily with the king to the dinner." This counsel pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.
6
1: On that night the king could not sleep; and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king.
2: And it was found written how Mor'decai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands upon King Ahasu-e'rus.
6: Haman came in, and the king said to him, "What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?" And Haman said to himself, "Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?"
7: and Haman said to the king,
8: "Let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set;
9: and let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble princes; let him array the man whom the king delights to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: `Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.'"
The king is thinking of Mordecai, but Haman thinks he means himself! So Haman's advice glorifies Haman's enemy, Mordecai. More irony! This is a lot like Hannah's prayer, later adopted as the Virgin Mary's Magnificat (in LUKE); that is, a prayer of reversals: the hungry are fed while those who have now have not.
10: Then the king said to Haman, "Make haste, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mor'decai the Jew who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing you have mentioned."
Note the king's ironic words: "Leave out nothing you have mentioned."
7
2: And on the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your wish, Queen Esther?"
3: Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, let my life be given me at my request, and my people at my request.
5: Then King Ahasu-e'rus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, that would dare do this?"
6: And Esther said, "This wicked Haman!" Then Haman was in terror.
7: And the king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden; Haman stayed to beg his life from Esther.
8: And the king returned as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was; and the king said, "Will he assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?"
9: Then said Harbo'na, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, "The gallows which Haman prepared for Mor'decai, whose word saved the king, is standing in Haman's house, fifty cubits high."
10: And the king said, "Hang him on that."
So Haman is hanged on the gallows he had built to hang Mordecai.
8
1: On that day King Ahasu-e'rus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mor'decai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her;
2: and the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mor'decai. And Esther set Mor'decai over the house of Haman.
3: Then Esther spoke again to the king; she fell at his feet and begged with tears to stop the Haman's plot against the Jews.
5: And she said, "If it please the king, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the lands of the king.
6: For how can I endure to see the ruin of my people?"
7: Then King Ahasu-e'rus said to Queen Esther and to Mor'decai the Jew,
8: "You may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring; for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked."
Since a Persian law can not be undone, the only solution was to give the Jews the right to fight back, which is done:
17: And there was joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many declared themselves Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.
People are so afraid of the revenge of the Jews on the 13th day of Adar, that they pretend they themselves are Jews.
9
13: And Esther said, "If it please the king, let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows."
14: So the king commanded this to be done; and Haman's ten sons were hanged.
26: Therefore they called the feast Purim, after the term Pur.
Additions to the Book of Esther
Part of the Apocrypha (and "deuterocanonical" [=second canon] for Catholics).8: Mordecai prayed to the Lord. He said:
9: "O Lord,
12: You know all things; you know, O Lord, that it was not in insolence or pride or for any love of glory that I did this, and refused to bow down to this proud Haman.
14: But I did this to set the glory of man above the glory of God, and I will not bow down to any one but to thee, who art my Lord; and I will not do this in pride.
Note a more theological point of view (pride, devotion to God, etc.)
15: And now, O Lord God and King, God of Abraham, spare thy people.
16: Do not neglect thy portion, which thou didst redeem for thyself out of the land of Egypt."
14
1: And Esther the queen, seized with deathly anxiety, fled to the Lord;
2: she took off her splendid apparel and put on the garments of distress and mourning, and instead of costly perfumes she covered her head with ashes and dung, and she humbled her body, and every part that she loved to adorn she covered with her tangled hair.
The additions reverse the Hebrew text: instead of dressing herself in beauty, Esther dresses herself humbly and prays to God:
15: "Thou hast knowledge of all things; and thou knowest I hate the splendor of the wicked and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised and of any alien.
The Apocrypha reverses the point of the canonical tale; namely, that Jews can adapt to a foreign culture. Here the message is that foreign culture is evil and accepted only from necessity.
18: Thy servant has had no joy since the day that I was brought here until now, except in thee, O Lord God of Abraham.
15
8: Then God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness.
Note (above, v. 8) that these additions more than make up for the lack of God's name in the original Hebrew text; here God is the source of the Jews' changed forture.
16
This is a copy of the king's letter (omitted from the Hebrew). Here the king is called "Artaxerxes" instead of Xerxes or Ahasuerus:1: The following is a copy of this letter: "The Great King, Artaxerxes, to the rulers of the provinces from India to Ethiopia.
17: "You will do well not to put in execution the letters sent by Haman,
18: because the man himself who did these things has been hanged at the gate of Susa, with all his household. For God, who rules over all things, has speedily inflicted on him the punishment he deserved.
19: "Therefore permit the Jews to live under their own laws.
20: And give them reinforcements, so on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, they may defend themselves.
21: God, who rules over all things, has made this day to be a joy to his chosen people instead of a day of destruction for them."
God is a God of justice. It is God who turns a day of mourning into a day of feasting, though God is not mentioned in the canonic text of the book of Esther.
Finally the reason for calling the Feast of Purim "Purim" has a different (more theological) meaning: "lot" here means Israel as God's chosen lot.
7: For this purpose God made two lots, one for the people of God and one for the nations.
9: And God remembered his people.
10: So they will observe these days in the month of Adar, on the fourteenth and fifteenth of that month, with joy before God, forever among his people Israel."
Angered, he made Esther his new queen.
Her real name was Hadassah. Unknown to the king, she was Jewish and an orphan. Her cousin, Mordecai, raised her.
Mordecai was the king's gate officer. He heard of a plot to kill the king and told Esther, who told the king. The men who planned to kill the king were hanged.
About this time, Haman was promoted above other nobles. But Mordecai refused to bow to him. So Haman planned to kill Mordecai and his people.
He cast lots (purim) to choose the day. The 13th day of the 12th month was chosen. A gallows was built for Mordecai.
Haman then told the king there were subjects who did not obey the king's laws. So the king agreed to have these people killed.
When Mordecai heard of the plot to kill his people, he wore mourning clothes outside the king's gates. He begged Queen Esther for help.
Meanwhile, one night, unable to sleep, the king read the history of his kingdom, so learned how Mordecai saved his life.
He asked Haman how a good man should be rewarded. Haman thought the king was speaking of himself and recommended high honors. So Haman, by his own words, was forced to honor his enemy, Mordecai.
Esther, on her cousin's request, took a chance and asked her husband, the king, for a favor. He agreed to hold a dinner and invite Haman. Haman was happy to be favored.
Esther then asked for another favor, to save herself and her people from death. She explained that Haman was the cause.
Angered, the king left his room, while Haman begged Esther for his life. Returning, the king thought Haman was attacking his wife. He ordered him killed on the gallows made for Mordecai.
In Persia a law could not be changed. So a new law was made, allowing Jews to defend themselves. So the fate of the Jews was reversed: they killed those who meant to kill them.
This day is honored in the Jewish feast called Purim, based on the lots ("purim") Haman threw to choose the day the Jews should be killed. The lot ("pur") cast for the Jews' death became their feast day instead.
Today the megillah (scroll) of Esther is read on this day.
The book of Esther can be read on many levels. One way is in view of the feud between the Amalekites and the Jews (here, the Bejaminites).
Another reading is the Jewish idea of reversal, similar in Hannah's prayer and Mary's Magnificat (LUKE).
Though the book of Esther never mentions "God," the text suggests God's power to reverse laws and Fate.
No comments:
Post a Comment