Chapter Four

1–3. Mordecai’s grief and that of the Jews. 4–14. Esther is informed and the demand for her intercession before the king. 15–17. Third addition to the book: Mordecai’s appeal to Esther (end of verse 8). Three-day fast of the Jews. Fourth addition to the book: prayers of Mordecai and Esther.

Esther 4:1. When Mordecai learned all that was being done, he tore his robes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city and cried out with a loud and bitter cry: [a people innocent and undeserving is being destroyed!] By virtue of his proximity to the court, Mordecai learned and understood sooner than others the full horror of what was being prepared, and—although it had remained hidden from others what the universal, agitating mobilization was for, he already knew everything. The original does not record what Mordecai cried out in his anguish, he who had such a pitiful, penitential-mournful appearance—in sackcloth and ashes. The reader can easily imagine this for himself. The words given in brackets represent a borrowing from the Greek text.

Esther 4:2. And he came to the king’s gate [and stopped,] for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate in sackcloth [and with ashes]. The words in brackets are borrowed from the Greek text.

Esther 4:3. Likewise in every province and place to which the king’s command and decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; sackcloth and ashes served as a bed for many. “Sackcloth and ashes served as a bed”—a more precise translation is: “many clothed themselves in sackcloth and ashes.”

Esther 4:4. Then Esther’s maidens and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was greatly distressed. And she sent garments so that Mordecai might put them on and take off his sackcloth from himself. But he would not accept them. Esther 4:5. Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and sent him to Mordecai to learn what this was and why. Esther, it seems, remained in complete ignorance about what had brought Mordecai in such a sorrowful state to the palace gates. This shows both how much Mordecai’s ability to quickly enter into the “course of affairs” being conducted at court, and also the secrecy and mystery in which this bloodthirsty and monstrous enterprise of Haman was born. Mordecai’s refusal to change his garment from sackcloth served as a sign to Esther of the most intense mourning, which could not be interrupted for a moment given the severity of the grief. This prompts Esther to employ another means to learn the cause of his sorrow—by sending a special eunuch, perhaps also one of the Jews—for detailed questioning of Mordecai.

Esther 4:8. And he gave him a copy of the decree issued in Susa for the destruction of them, so that he might show it to Esther and inform her of everything; moreover, he instructed her to go to the king and beg mercy from him and intercede with him for her people, [remembering the days of her humiliation, when she was brought up under my care, because Haman, second to the king, has condemned us to death, and you must call upon the Lord and speak of us to the king, so that he may deliver us from death]. Mordecai gives the messenger a copy of Haman’s decree as well—further proof of Esther’s complete ignorance about it. The words in brackets convey details from the Greek text (the third addition), where Mordecai’s appeal to Esther is expressed directly (forms of the first and second person, which the translation has only partly preserved in the expressions “my,” “us,” etc.).

Esther 4:11. All the servants of the king and the peoples of the king’s provinces know that for anyone, man or woman, who enters the king’s inner court without being called, there is but one law—death; only the one to whom the king extends his golden scepter shall live. And I have not been called to come to the king for thirty days. Some variations in place of “thirty” days indicate three days of Esther not being invited to the king. Either version may have its own greater or lesser probability.

Esther 4:14. If you keep silent at this time, then deliverance and salvation will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether it is not for such a time as this that you have come to the dignity of queen? All scholars draw attention to the fact that the Hebrew original of the book nowhere mentions the name of God, and seems even intentionally to avoid it. So, in this very place, though it would be natural and even necessary to mention God, the book masks him with vague expressions (“another place”), and perhaps does not even truly mean him here. To explain this strange phenomenon, it is suggested that the author of the book probably borrowed his narrative from some Persian court chronicle, which he indeed references at the end of his work (Esth 10:2), and that only later—from a Jewish, perhaps Mordecai’s, hand—was this event somewhat embellished and adapted to Jewish-religious conceptions.

Esther 4:16. Go, gather all the Jews found in Susa, and fast for me, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I too with my maidens will fast likewise, and then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish—I perish. “Fast for me”—that is, for the success of the matter for which Esther has devoted herself.

Esther 4:17. And Mordecai went and did all that Esther had commanded him. “The prayers of Mordecai and Esther” (the fourth addition)—represent the rhetorical expression of their mood in such tragic moments, like those speeches which Greek writers so love to put into the mouths of the heroes they depict, sometimes achieving a remarkable perfection in this art. The general idea of the prayer is deliverance from terrible danger; moreover Esther—more specifically—prays first of all for the success of her bold intention—to appear before the king without his calling—contrary to law. A characteristic feature of Mordecai’s prayer, in contrast to Esther’s, is a justification of his opposition to Haman, which served as the immediate cause of the present misfortune and as it were made Mordecai responsible for everything.

“Esther 4_17ä) [And he prayed to the Lord, remembering all the works of the Lord, and said:” “Esther 4_17b Lord, Lord, King, Almighty! All things are in your power, and there is no one who can resist you when you wish to save Israel;” “Esther 4_17d You have made heaven and earth and all the wonderful things in the universe; You are the Lord of all, and there is no one who can oppose you, Lord.” “Esther 4_17ë) You know all things; You know, Lord, that it was not for pride or arrogance or love of glory that I did this—that I did not bow down to the vain Haman, for I would gladly have kissed the soles of his feet for the salvation of Israel;” “Esther 4_17f but I did this so as not to give the glory of a man higher than the glory of God, and I will not bow down to anyone but You, my Lord, and I will not do this out of pride.” “And I will not do this out of pride”—a repetition of what Mordecai said above about it not being from pride alone (without other more important motives) that he refused so stubbornly to bow down to Haman, which brought such danger upon all the people.

“Esther 4_17g And now, Lord God, King, God of Abraham, have mercy upon your people; for they are plotting our destruction and wish to wipe out your ancient inheritance;” “Esther 4_17h do not despise your possession, which you redeemed for yourself from the land of Egypt;” “Esther 4_17ï) hear my prayer and have mercy upon your inheritance, and turn our mourning into joy, so that we, remaining alive (in defiance of Haman’s design), may sing the praises of your name, Lord, and do not destroy the lips that praise you, Lord.” “So that we, remaining alive (ζῶντες)—that is, surviving contrary to Haman’s design—may sing the praises of your name.”

“Esther 4_17j And all Israel cried out with all their might, for death was before their eyes.” “Esther 4_17k And Queen Esther turned to the Lord, seized with mortal anguish, and, taking off her robes of glory, put on garments of mourning and lamentation, and in place of costly perfumes, she strewed ashes and dust upon her head, and greatly afflicted her body, and every place that she adorned in rejoicing she covered with her unbound hair, and prayed to the Lord God of Israel, saying:” “Taking off her robes of glory”—that is, her royal garments.

“Esther 4_17l My Lord! You alone are our King; help me, who am alone and have no helper but you; for my distress is near me.” “Esther 4_17m I have heard, Lord, from my father, in my native tribe, that you, Lord, chose for yourself Israel from among all peoples, and our fathers from among all their ancestors as an eternal inheritance, and did for them what you promised them.” “Esther 4_17n And now we have sinned against you, and you have delivered us into the hands of our enemies because we glorified their gods: you are righteous, Lord!” “Esther 4_17ö) But now they were not satisfied with our bitter bondage, but have put their hands into the hands of their idols, so that they might overthrow the commandment of your lips, and destroy your inheritance, and stop the mouths of those who sing your praises, and extinguish the glory of your temple and your altar,” “They have put their hands into the hands of their idols”—that is, they have completely surrendered themselves to the power of their idols, have given themselves over to idolatry and mockery of the One True God.

“Esther 4_17p and open the mouths of the nations to proclaim the glory of vain gods, and let a mortal king be exalted forever.” “A mortal king”—that is, a human, Persian king, in contrast to the Heavenly King, God.

“Esther 4_17q Do not give your scepter, Lord, to gods that do not exist, and let them not rejoice in our fall, but turn their plot against themselves: and deliver the adversary against us to disgrace.” “The adversary against us—that is, Haman—deliver to disgrace.”

“Esther 4_17r Remember, Lord, reveal yourself to us in the time of our distress, and give me courage. King of gods and Lord of all authority!” “King of gods”—God of Gods (ὁ θεὸς τῶν θεόν, Ps 85:8)—gods, not in the sense of living beings, but in the sense of τῶν μὴ ὄντων, as they are referred to above (“do not give your scepter, Lord, to gods that do not exist”—τοῖς μὴ οὖσι).

“Esther 4_17s Grant to my lips a word agreeable before this lion, and turn his heart to hatred of the one who pursues us, that he may perish, him and those who are of his mind;” “Before this lion”—that is, before the Persian king. The lion is a symbol of strength and terror, of dreadfulness. “To hatred of the one who pursues us”—that is, Haman.

“Esther 4_17t And deliver us by your hand and help me, who am alone and have no helper but you, Lord.” “Esther 4_17ü) You have knowledge of all things, and you know that I hate the glory of the lawless and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised and of every foreigner;” “Esther 4_17w You know my necessity, that I abhor the sign of my pride, which is on my head in the days of my appearing, I abhor it as a garment stained with blood, and I do not wear it in the days of my solitude.” “The sign of my pride... on my head—that is, the royal diadem—in the days of my appearing,” that is, either before the king or generally in ceremonial cases that require it.

“Esther 4_17x And your servant has not eaten at Haman’s table, and did not treasure the king’s feast, and did not drink wine offered to idols,” “Esther 4_17y and your servant has not rejoiced from the day of the change of my fate until now, except in you, Lord God of Abraham.” “Esther 4_17z O God, mighty over all! Hear the voice of the hopeless, and save us from the hand of the evildoers, and deliver me from my fear.]”