Глава 6

1–3. The king remembers Mordecai's merits and expresses a desire to reward him. 4–11. Haman, unaware, invents the highest reward, and he himself turns out to be the executor of the royal will for the exaltation of Mordecai. 12–14. Haman's disappointment. Esther 6:1. That night the Lord took the king's sleep away, and he ordered [the servant] to bring a memorial book of the day's records; and they read them before the king, A more accurate translation (without mentioning the name of God): “that night sleep fled from the king”... Esther 6:3. And the king said, What honor and distinction was given to Mordecai for this? And the king’s servants who served with him said, “Nothing has been done to him.” “Nothing has been done to him,” say the king’s “youths” when asked about rewarding Mordecai. The Greek addition (before Chapter I), on the contrary, among the consequences of Mordecai’s service indicates that “the king ordered Mordecai to serve in the palace and gave him gifts for this” (Esth. 1:1). It has already been said above that the approach of Mordecai to the court is sufficiently justified by other reasons (the approach of Esther), and therefore, recognizing in any case the great naturalness of the fact that the situation was as it is conveyed in this place, one can only make some effort to reconcile with this the apparently contradictory detail of the Greek addition. It can be assumed that Mordecai at one time actually received something and some gifts for his service, but this “something” and “gifts” were so insignificant compared to the greatness of the service that they could easily have been forgotten by that time and gave every reason to say that “nothing was done to him” (Mordecai). Esther 6:4. [When the king asked about Mordecai's good deed, Haman came to the courtyard,] and the king said: Who is in the courtyard? Haman then came to the outer court of the king's house to talk to the king, so that Mordecai would be hanged on the tree that he had prepared for him. Esther 6:5. And the youths said to the king, Behold, Haman is standing in the courtyard. And the king said: Let him come in. Esther 6:6. And Haman entered. And the king said to him: what should the man do whom the king wants to honor? Haman thought in his heart: Who else would the king want to honor but me? Esther 6:7. And Haman said to the king: The man whom the king wants to honor, Esther 6:8. let them bring the royal robe in which the king dresses, and bring the horse on which the king rides, and place the royal crown on his head, Esther 6:9. and let them give the robe and the horse into the hands of one of the first princes of the king, and let them clothe the person whom the king wants to honor, and lead him on horseback to the city square, and proclaim before him: this is done to the person whom the king wants to honor! Esther 6:10. And the king said to Haman: [you have spoken well;] immediately take the robe and the horse, as you said, and do it to Mordecai the Judah, who sits at the king’s gate; leave nothing out of everything you said. Esther 6:11. And Haman took the robe and the horse and clothed Mordecai, and led him on horseback into the city square and proclaimed before him: This is done to the person whom the king wants to honor! It is hardly possible to imagine a more searing wound to pride and pride, which was the order of the king to Haman regarding Mordecai. A man whom the king himself elevated to such a height that he called him “second” (Esth.4:8), “father” (Esth.3:13), etc. and distinguished himself with such honors as the prostration of his subjects before him - he had to play the role of a servant in the triumph of his sworn enemy, for whom he had even prepared the gallows. In addition to explaining this unexpectedly incomprehensible reversal of roles by the arrangement of God’s Providence, which punished Haman’s pride and conceit that had overflowed here, we can make the assumption here that the king’s favorite had already begun to fall greatly in the eyes of the king by this time, and that means Esther’s complaint was only the final culmination of his defeat, albeit the most powerful and decisive one. Esther 6:12. And Mordecai returned to the king's gate. Haman hurried to his house, sad and covering his head. Esther 6:13. And Haman told Zereshi his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. And his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him: If Mordecai is from the tribe of Judah, because of whom you began to fall, then you will not overcome him, but you will surely fall before him, [for the living God is with him]. Esther 6:14. They were still talking with him when the king’s eunuchs came and began to hurry Haman to go to the feast that Esther had prepared. The extraordinary fate that the Jews experienced since the time of Cyrus the Persian aroused among other peoples either envy and hostility, which took advantage of all sorts of occasions to manifest itself, or, on the other hand, an unconscious mystical fear as of some special mysteriously tenacious force, protected by another higher irresistible force (the Divine). This is exactly what is heard in the warning expressed to Haman at his second family council - after the just described adventure with Mordecai: “if Mordecai is from the tribe of the Jews, because of whom you began to fall, you will not overpower him, but you will certainly fall before him [for the living God is with him].” You might be interested in: