The Book of Esther

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 10 -

Mordecai's promotion

Truly, king Artaxerxes made all the land, and all the islands of the sea, tributaries.(a)

And his strength and his authority, and the dignity and supremacy with which he exalted Mordecai, have been written in the books of the Medes and the Persians,

and how Mordecai of Jewish birth, was second after king Artaxerxes, and great among the Jews, and acceptable to the people of his brethren, seeking the good of his people, and speaking about things which pertained to peace for their descendants.

And Mordecai said,(b) “By God have these things been done.

I remember a dream(c) that I saw, which signified these same things, and nothing of this whatsoever has failed to occur.

The little fountain which grew into a river, and had turned into light and into the sun, and overflowed into many waters, is Esther, whom the king received as wife and whom he preferred to be queen.

But the two dragons are I and Haman.

The peoples who gathered together are those who had attempted to erase the name of the Jews.

And my people is Israel, who cried out to the Lord, and the Lord brought salvation to his people, and he freed us from all evils, and he created great signs and portents among the nations.

And he commanded there to be two lots, one for the people of God and the other for all the nations.(d)

And both lots arrived at the day appointed before God, even from that past time, for all peoples.(e)

And the Lord remembered his people and had mercy on his inheritance.

And these days shall be observed in the month of Adar, on the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the same month, with all zealousness and joy, by the people gathered together into one union, throughout all the generations hereafter of the people of Israel.”

Footnotes

(a)15:1 Or, he made a tribute, i.e., he collected a tribute from all the lands and islands.(Conte)

(b)10:4 Mordecai said, etc:Here St. Jerome advertises the reader, that what follows is not in the Hebrew, but is found in the septuagint Greek edition, which the seventy-two interpreters translated out of the Hebrew, or added by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.(Challoner)

(c)15:5 A dream:This dream was prophetical and extraordinary: otherwise the general rule is not to observe dreams.(Challoner)

(d)15:10 The command that there be two lots means that there would be two different fates or two different end results, one for the people of God and the other for the nations.(Conte)

(e)15:11 Both end results are completed at the same time: the vindication of the people of God and the punishment of their enemies.(Conte)