take vengeance on Mordecai by exterminating his whole nation, thus
glibly and easily wins over the king to his scheme. "There is a
nation," he says, "scattered abroad throughout all the provinces
of the king's kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people,
neither keep they the king's laws, therefore it is not for the
king's profit to suffer them." "If it please the king let it be
written that they may be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand
talents of silver to the hands of them that have the charge of the
business, to bring it into the king's treasury."
It is fashionable in our times to speak of the contempt and
disregard shown to women in this period of the world among Oriental
races, but this one incident shows that women were held no cheaper
than men. _Human beings_ were cheap. The massacre of hundreds
of thousands was negotiated in an easy, off-hand way, just as a
gardener ordains exterminating sulphur for the green bugs on his
plants. The king answered to Haman, "The silver is given thee, and
the people also, to do as seemeth to thee good."
Then, says the story, "the king's scribes were called on the
thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according
to all that Haman had commanded, and the letters were sent by post
into all the provinces, to destroy and to kill and cause to perish
all Jews, both old and young, little children and women, in one day,
of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, to take the spoil of
them for a prey. The posts went out, being hastened by the king's
commandment, _and the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the
city of Shushan was perplexed_." And when Mordecai heard this he
rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went into the
midst of the city, and came even before the king's gate, for none
might enter into the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. The Oriental
monarch was supposed to dwell in eternal bliss and joyfulness: no
sight or sound of human suffering or weakness or pain must disturb
the tranquility of his court; he must not even suspect the existence
of such a thing as sorrow.
Far in the luxurious repose of the women's apartments, sunk upon
embroidered cushions, listening to the warbling of birds and the
plash of fountains, Esther the queen knew nothing of the decree
that had gone forth against her people. The report was brought her
by her chamberlain that her kinsman was in sackcloth, and she sent
to take it away and clothe him with costly garments, but he refused
the attention and persisted in his mourning. Then the queen sent her
chief chamberlain to inquire what was the cause of his distress,
and Mordecai sent a copy of the decree, with a full account of how
and by whom it had been obtained, and charging her to go and make
supplication to the king for her people. Esther returned answer:
"All the king's servants do know that whosoever, man or woman, shall
come in to the king in the inner court, who is not called, there is
one law to put them to death, except those to whom the king shall
hold out the golden scepter that he may live, but I have not been
called to appear before the king for thirty days."
We have here the first thoughts of a woman naturally humble and
timid, knowing herself one of the outlawed race, and fearing,
from the long silence of the king, that his heart may have been
set against her by the enemies of her people. Mordecai sent in
reply to this a sterner message; "Think not with thyself that thou
shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if
thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there
enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another quarter,
but thou and thy father's house shall be cut off; and who knoweth
whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" And
Esther sends this reply: "Go, gather together all the Jews that are
in Shushan, and fast ye for me; neither eat nor drink for three
days, night or day; and I and my maidens will fast likewise. And so
I will go in unto the king, which is not according to law; and if I
perish, I perish."
There are certain apochryphal additions to the book of Esther, which
are supposed to be the efforts of some romancer in enlarging upon
a historic theme. In it is given at length a prayer of Mordecai in
this distress, and a detailed account of the visit of Esther to the
king. The writer says, that, though she carried a smiling face,
"her heart was in anguish for fear," and she fell fainting upon the
shoulder of her maid. Our own account is briefer, and relates simply
how the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, and she
obtained favor in his eyes, and he held out the golden scepter, and
said to her, "What wilt thou, Queen Esther, what is thy request? and
it shall be given thee, even to half of the kingdom." Too prudent to
enter at once into a discussion of the grand subject, Esther seeks
an occasion to study the king and Haman together more nearly, and
her request is only that the king and Haman would come that day to a
private banquet in the queen's apartments. It was done, and the king
and Haman both came.
At the banquet her fascinations again draw from the king the
permission to make known any request of her heart, and it shall
be given, even to half of his kingdom. Still delaying the final
issue, Esther asks that both the king and his minister may come to a
second banquet on the morrow. Haman appears to have been excessively
flattered at this attention from the queen, of whose nationality
he was profoundly ignorant; but as he passed by and saw Mordecai
in his old seat in the king's gate, "that he stood not up neither
moved for him," he was full of indignation. He goes home to his
domestic circle, and amplifies the account of his court successes
and glories, and that even the queen has distinguished him with an
invitation which was shared by no one but the king. Yet, he says, in
the end, all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the
Jew sitting in the king's gate. His wife is fruitful in resources.
"Erect a gibbet," she says, "and to-morrow speak to the king, and
have Mordecai hanged, and go thou merrily to the banquet." And the
thing pleased Haman, and he caused the gallows to be made.
On that night the king could not sleep, and calls an attendant,
by way of opiate, to read the prosy and verbose records of his
kingdom,--probably having often found this a sovereign expedient for
inducing drowsiness. Then, by accident, his ear catches the account
of the conspiracy which had been averted by Mordecai. "What honor
hath been shown this man?" he inquires; and his servants answered,
There is nothing done for him. The king's mind runs upon the
subject, and early in the morning, perceiving Haman standing as an
applicant in the outer court, he calls to have him admitted. Haman
came, with his mind full of the gallows and Mordecai. The king's
mind was full, also, of Mordecai, and he had the advantage of the
right of speaking first. In the enigmatic style sometimes employed
by Oriental monarchs, he inquires, "What shall be done with the man
whom the king delighteth to honor?" Haman, thinking this the preface
to some new honor to himself, proposes a scheme. The man whom the
king delights to honor shall be clothed in the king's royal robes,
wear the king's crown, be mounted on the king's horse, and thus
be led through the streets by one of the king's chief councilors,
proclaiming, "This is the man whom the king delighteth to honor."
"Then said the king: Make haste, and do even so as thou hast said
unto Mordecai the Jew that sitteth in the king's gate. Let nothing
fail of all that thou hast spoken." And Haman, without daring to
remonstrate, goes forth and fulfills the king's command, with what
grace and willingness may be imagined.
It is evident from the narrative that the king had not even taken
the trouble to inquire the name of the people he had given up to
extermination any more than he had troubled himself to reward the
man who had saved his life. In both cases he goes on blindly, and
is indebted to mere chance for his discoveries. We see in all this
the same passionate, childish nature that is recorded of Xerxes by
Herodotus when he scourged the sea for destroying his bridge of
boats. When Haman comes back to his house after his humiliating
public exposure, his wife comforts him after a fashion that has not
passed out of use with her. "If that Mordecai," she says, "is of the
seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not
prevail against him, but shall surely fall before him."
And now Haman and the king and Esther are once more in a secluded
apartment, banqueting together. Again the king says to her, "What
is thy request, Esther?" The hour of full discovery is now come.
Esther answers: "If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if
it please the king, let _my life_ be given me at my petition, and
my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people, to be
slain and to perish. If we had only been sold to slavery, I had held
my tongue." Then the king breaks forth, "Who is he, and where is
he that durst presume in his heart to do so?" And Esther answered,
"The adversary and enemy _is this wicked Haman_!" Then Haman was
afraid before the king and queen, and he had the best reason to be
so. The king, like an angry lion, rose up in a fury and rushed out
into the gardens. Probably at this moment he perceived the net into
which he had been drawn by his favorite. He has sent orders for
the destruction of this people, to whom his wife belongs, and for
whom she intercedes. Of course he never thinks of blaming himself.
The use of prime ministers was as well understood in those days
as now, and Haman must take the consequences as soon as the king
can get voice to speak it. Haman, white with abject terror, falls
fainting at the feet of Esther upon the couch where she rests, and
as the king comes raging back from the gardens he sees him there.
"What! will he force our queen also in our very presence?" he says.
And as the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's
face. All is over with him, and an alert attendant says: "Behold
the gallows, fifty cubits high, that he made to hang Mordecai, the
saviour of the king's life." Then said the king, "Hang him thereon."
Thus dramatically comes the story to a crisis. Mordecai becomes
prime minister. The message of the king goes everywhere, empowering
the Jews to stand for their life, and all the governors of provinces
to protect them. And so it ends in leaving the nation powerful in
all lands, under the protection of a queen and prime minister of
their own nation.
The book of Esther was forthwith written and sent to the Jews in
all countries of the earth, as a means of establishing a yearly
commemorative festival called Purim, from the word "Pur," or "The
lot." The festival was appointed, we are told, by the joint
authority of Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen. And to this
day we Gentiles in New York or Boston, at the time of Purim, may
go into the synagogue and hear this book of Esther chanted in the
Hebrew, and hear the hearty curses which are heaped, with thumps of
hammers and of fists, upon the heads of Haman and his sons whenever
their names occur in the story,--a strange fragment of ancient
tradition floated down to our modern times. The palace of Shushan,
with its hangings of green and blue and purple, its silver couches,
its stir and hum of busy life, is now a moldering ruin; but the
fair woman that once trod its halls is remembered and honored in a
nation's heart. It is a curious fact that the romantic history of
Esther has twice had its parallel since the Christian era, as the
following incident, from Schudt's "Memorabilia of the Jews,"[4]
witnesses. In this rare and curious work--4th book, 13th chapter--he
says: "Casimir the Great, of Poland, in 1431, fell in love with a
beautiful Jewess named Esther, whom he married and raised to the
throne of Poland. He had by her two sons and several daughters.
His love for her was so great that he allowed the daughters to be
brought up in their mother's religion." Also it is related that
Alphonso VIII., king of Spain, took to himself a beautiful Jewess as
a wife. On account of her he gave such privileges to the Jews that
she became an object of jealousy to the nobles, and was assassinated.
[4] Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten. Frankfort and Leipsic, 1714.
The book of Esther fills an important place in the sacred canon, as
showing the Divine care and protection extended over the sacred race
in the period of their deepest depression. The beauty and grace of a
woman were the means of preserving the seed from which the great Son
of Man and desire of all nations, should come. Esther held in her
fair hand the golden chain at the end of which we see the Mother of
Jesus. The "Prayer of Esther" is a composition ascribed to her, and
still in honored use among the solemn services of the synagogue.
[Illustration: JUDITH THE DELIVERER]
JUDITH THE DELIVERER.
No female type of character has given more brilliant inspiration
to the artist or been made more glowingly alive on canvas than
Judith. Her story, however, is set down by competent scholars
as a work of fiction. The incidents recorded in it have so many
anachronisms as to time and place, the historical characters
introduced are in combinations and relations so interfering with
authentic history, that such authorities as Professor Winer,[5] of
Leipsic, and others, do not hesitate to assign it to the realm of
romance. This Apocryphal book is, in fact, one of the few sparse
blossoms of æsthetic literature among the Jewish nation. It is a
story ages before the time of the tales of the _Decameron_, but as
purely a romance. Considered in this light, it is nobly done and
of remarkable beauty. The character of Judith is a striking and
picturesque creation, of which any modern artist might be proud. It
illustrates quite as powerfully as a true story the lofty and heroic
type of womanhood which was the result of the Mosaic institutions,
and the reverence in which such women were held by the highest
authorities of the nation.
[5] Winer's Bible Dictionary, art. _Judith_.
The author begins with the account of a destructive and terrible war
which is being waged on the Jewish nation for refusing to serve in
the armies of one Nabuchodonosor, king of Assyria, in an attack on
the king of the Medes and Persians. All the names of this so-called
war, and all the events as narrated, are out of joint with received
history, and clearly as much creations of the writer's fancy as the
Arabian Nights. It is stated that the Jews had just returned from
the Babylonian captivity, and brought back their sacred vessels,
and restored their temple worship after the long defilement of
heathen servitude. But it is a matter of undisputed history that
Nabuchodonosor was the king who carried the nation into captivity,
and no other monarch of the name is known to history who performed
deeds at all like those here narrated.
The story goes on to state how, to punish the Jews for not becoming
his soldiers in the war, this king sent his chief commander,
Holofernes, to carry destruction over their country. The mighty army
of this general, and its ravages over the surrounding country, are
set forth with an Oriental luxury of amplification. They come at
last and straitly besiege the city of Bethulia. Whether this is a
fictitious name for a real city, or whether it is a supposititious
city, the creation of the author's imagination, critics are not
fully decided; the story is just as pretty on one hypothesis as the
other. The water being cut off, the people, suffering and dying of
thirst, beset the chief-priests and elders to surrender the city to
save their lives. Ozias, the chief ruler, temporizes, recommends
five days of prayer; if before that time the God of Israel does not
interpose, he promises to surrender.
And now the romance puts its heroine on the stage. After tracing her
family and descent, it introduces her in these quaint words: "Now
Judith was a widow in her house three years and four months. And she
made her tent on the top of the house, put on sackcloth, and wore
her widow's apparel; and she fasted all the days of her widowhood,
save the eves of the Sabbaths, the Sabbaths, and the new moons and
solemn feast-days of Israel. She was also of goodly countenance,
and beautiful to behold, and her husband, Manasses, had left her
gold and silver, and man-servants and maid-servants, and cattle, and
lands; and she remained upon them. And there was none gave her an
ill word, for she feared God greatly."
It is a striking exemplification of the elevated position which
women held in the Jewish nation that a romance writer should
introduce the incident that follows. Judith, hearing of the promise
of the chief-ruler to surrender the city, sends her maid to call the
governor and the chief men of the city, and they came unto her. And
she said: "Hear now, O ye governors of the inhabitants of Bethulia,
for the words that you have spoken are not right touching this oath,
that you have promised to deliver the city to our enemies, unless
within these days the Lord turn and help you. And now, who are ye
that have tempted God this day, to stand in the stead of God to the
children of men?"
She goes on to tell them that they have no right to say that unless
God interfere for them before a certain time they will give up a
sacred charge which has been entrusted to them to maintain; but it
is rather their duty to stand at their posts and defend their city,
without making conditions with him as to when or how he should help
them. She says to them: "And now, try the Lord Almighty, and ye
shall never know anything. For ye cannot find the depth of the heart
of a man, neither can ye perceive what he thinketh; how, then, can
ye search out God, that hath made all things, and comprehend his
purposes? Nay, my brethren, provoke not the Lord our God to anger;
for if he will not help within five days, he hath power to help us
when he will, even every day. Do not bind the counsel of the Lord,
for God is not a man that he may be threatened. Therefore, let us
wait for salvation from him, and call upon him, and he will hear, if
it please him."
She then shows them the disgrace and dishonor which will come
upon them if they betray their trust, and they allow the sacred
inheritance to be defiled and destroyed, and ends with a heroic
exhortation: "Now, therefore, O brethren, let us show an example to
our brethren, because their hearts depend on us, and the sanctuary
and the house and the altar rest on us."
The governor and elders receive this message with respectful
deference, apologize for yielding to the urgency of the people, who
were mad with the sufferings of thirst, and compelled them to make
this promise, and adds: "Therefore, pray thou for us, for thou art a
goodly woman, and the Lord will send us rain, and fill our cisterns
that we thirst no more." At this moment Judith receives a sudden
flash of heroic inspiration, and announces to them, that, if they
will send her forth without the city that night, the Lord will visit
Israel by her hand. She adds that they must not inquire further
of her purpose, until the design she has in view be finished. The
magistrates, confiding implicitly in her, agree to forward her plan
blindly.
The story now introduces us to the private oratory, where Judith
pours out her heart before God. So says the narrative: "Then Judith
fell on her face, and put ashes on her head, and uncovered the
sackcloth wherewith she was clothed, and about the time that the
incense of that evening was offered in Jerusalem in the house of the
Lord, Judith cried with a loud voice to the Lord."
The prayer of Judith is eloquent in its fervent simplicity, and
breathes that intense confidence in God as the refuge of the
helpless, which is characteristic of Jewish literature. "Behold,"
she says, "the Assyrians are multiplied in their power, and are
exalted with horse and man; they glory in the strength of their
footmen; they trust in shield and spear and bow, and know not that
thou art the Lord that breakest battles. The Lord is thy name.
Throw down their strength in thy power, and bring down their force
in thy wrath, for they have purposed to defile thy sanctuary, and
to pollute the tabernacle where thy glorious name resteth, and to
cast down with sword the home of thy altar. Behold their pride.
Send thy wrath upon their heads, and give unto me, which am a
widow, the power that I have conceived. For thy power standeth not
in multitude, nor thy might in strong men; for thou art the God of
the afflicted, thou art an helper of the oppressed, an upholder of
the weak, a protector of the forlorn, a saviour of them that are
without hope. I pray thee, I pray thee, O God of my father, King of
every creature! hear my prayer, and make my speech and deceit to
be their wound and stripe, who have purposed cruel things against
thy covenant, and thy hallowed house, and against the house of the
possession of thy children."
When she had thus prayed, the story goes on to say she called her
maid, and, laying aside the garments of her widowhood, dressed
herself in the utmost splendor, adorning herself with jewels, and
practicing every art of the toilet to set off her beauty. Thus
attired, she with her maid went forth from the city towards the
Assyrian army, meaning to be taken prisoner. As she designed, she
was met by the outguards of the army, and carried at once to the
tent of their general, professing that she had come to show him a
way whereby he could go in and win all the hill country without loss
of a man. The sensation produced by her entrance into the camp is
well given: "Then there was a concourse through all the camp, for
her coming was noised among the tents, and they came about her as
she stood waiting without the tent of Holofernes; and they wondered
at her beauty, and admired the children of Israel because of her,
and every one said to his neighbors, Who would despise this people
that have among them such women?"
The story next gives the scene where Holofernes, dazzled by her
beauty and enchanted by her manners, becomes entirely subject to
her will, receives and entertains her as a sovereign princess.
She easily persuades him to believe the story she tells him. This
people, she says, are under the protection of their God so long as
they do not violate the rules of their religion, but, under the
pressure of famine, they are about to eat of forbidden articles
and to consume the sacred offerings due to the temple. Then their
God will turn against them and deliver them into his hands. She
will remain with him, and go forth from time to time; and when the
sacrilege is accomplished, she will let him know that the hour to
fall upon them is come.
So Judith is installed in state and all honor near the court of the
commander, and enjoys to the full the right to exercise the rites
of her national religion,--nay, the infatuated Holofernes goes so
far as to promise her that, in the event of her succeeding in her
promises, he will himself adopt the God of Israel for his God. After
a day or two spent in this way, in which she goes forth every night
for prayer and ablutions at the fountain, there comes the attempt to
draw her into the harem of the general. Holofernes, in conference
with Bagoas, the chief of his eunuchs, seems to think that the
beautiful Judæan woman would laugh him to scorn if he suffered such
an opportunity to pass unimproved. Accordingly a private banquet is
arranged, and the chief of the eunuchs carries the invitation in
true Oriental style, as follows: "Let not this fair damsel fear to
come unto my lord, and to be honored in his presence, and to drink
wine and be merry, and to be made this day as one of the Assyrians
that serve in the house of Nabuchodonosor." Judith graciously
accepts the invitation, decks herself with all her jewelry, and
comes to the banquet and ravishes the heart of the commandant with
her smiles. Excited and flattered, he drinks, it is said, more wine
than ever he drunk before; so that, at the close of the feast, when
the servants departed and Judith was left alone in the tent with
him, he was lying dead drunk with wine on the cushions of his divan.