And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, [even] upon the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and [to take] the spoil of them for a prey.
Ver. 13. And the letters were sent by posts] These the Persians called Angari, or (as Ruffin writeth it) Aggari. But why was this done in such post haste, so long before the day of execution? was it not to hold them all that while on the rack, and so to kill them piecemeal (as Tiberius used to do by his enemies), while, through fear of death, and expectation of that doleful day, they were all their lifetime subject to bondage? Hebrews 2:15 .
To destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish] Words written not with black, but with blood; and therefore multiplied in this sort, to show that it mattered not how, so they were made away by any means, and the world well rid of them. Read the history of the French Massacre; and hear reverend Merlin (who narrowly, and indeed miraculously, escaped those bloody villains, as being chaplain to the admiral, and praying with him in his chamber a little before he was murdered), hear him, I say, commenting upon this text; Sic nostro saeculo, si scribenda fuerint edicta adversus religionem, non potuerunt sibi scribae satisfacere in excogitandis verbis significantibus, quibus atrociora et magis sanguinaria redderentur, &c.; that is, in our age also if any edicts are to be written against religion, the secretaries cannot satisfy themselves in devising significant words, whereby those edicts may be rendered the more cruel and sanguinary.
All Jews, both young and old, little children and women] All ages, sizes, and sexes. What could the devil himself have added to this abhorred cruelty, if it had gone on? Such a slaughter made Doeg at Nob; the Sicilians at their bloody vespers; the king of France with the Templars throughout his kingdom; Minerius, the pope's champion, with the Protestants of Merindol and Chabriers (besides that of the Parisian Massacre before mentioned, and by Merlin upon this verse graphically described, like as that of Babylon is by Jeremiah, Jer 51:34). What a woeful slaughter had here been made had Fawkes but fired the powder! What an Aceldama had this whole land been turned into in a few days' time! Necdum interiit saevus Hamani animus. Neither yet is Haman dead, but reviveth daily in his bloody and blasphemous successors. That like as Bucholcer saith of Cain, the devil's patriarch, there are not a few that still carry about, adore, and worship as a sacred thing, Cain's club red with the blood of Abel; so it is here.
Even upon the thirteenth day] That it was to be no sooner done was by a special providence of God, that ere that time came it might be happily prevented, as was before noted. See Esther 3:7. Haman's folly also was not a little seen in deferring the execution so long; for how knew he what a day might bring forth? it was indeed mirabile simulque miserabile dictu, as one saith, a wonderful and in addition a miserable thing, that none should be found among the Persians, Medes, and Chaldees to pity this poor people, and to intercede for them. To have spoken to Haman for them might likely have been as bootless as once it was to Minerius in the behalf of the Merindolians. Of whom when a few had escaped his all-devouring sword, and he was entreated to give them quarter for their lives, he sternly answered, I know what I have to do, not one of them shall escape my hands; I will send them to dwell in hell among the devils. But if Haman resolved no better, yet what knew he, but that in time the king might relent and repent of that rash and wretched edict, as he did.
Nam faciles motus mens generosa capit (Ovid).
We read in our Chronicles, that when King Henry III had given commandment for the apprehending of Hubert de Burgo, earl of Kent, he fled into a church in Essex. They to whom the business was committed, finding him upon his knees before the high altar, with the sacrament in one hand and a cross in the other, carried him away nevertheless unto the Tower of London. The bishop taking this to be a great violence and wrong to the Church, would never leave the king until he had caused the earl to be carried to the place whence he was fetched. This was done; and although order was taken he should not escape thence, yet it gave the king's wrath a time to cool, and himself leisure to make proof of his innocence; by reason whereof he was afterwards restored to the king's favour and former places of honour. And the like befell these Jews, ere the thirteenth of Adar; but Haman, blinded with pride and superstition, could not foresee it.
And to take the spoil of them for a prey] To be sure that none should escape, the goods of the slain are proposed for a reward to them that should slay them, and how far that would prevail with many covetous wretches who knoweth not? Covetousness is daring and desperate (Dεινος και παντολμος, Isid.), how much more when it is encouraged, as here, by a permission, nay, a precept, from the king and his chief favourite! where we may be sure, the wealthier any man was the sooner he should have been sent out of the world, as a tree with thick and large boughs is most likely to be lopped. Trithemius telleth us, that the Templars mentioned above were massacred by Philip the Fair, king of France, upon pretext of heresy; but indeed because they were rich, and Philip sore longed after their possessions. The Cyprians for their great wealth became a spoil to the Romans.
- Quid non mortalia pectora cogis,
Auri sacra fames?