Bible Verses and Early Church Commentary | Historical Christian Faith

¹³ And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.

[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 6:12-13

This is the change in the right hand of the Most High, when someone who was only recently boasting that he had power over others, and was more arrogant than anyone, suddenly becomes more wretched than anyone else and weaker than all of them. It is the magnitude of this phenomenon that Mary, the mother of the Lord, has in mind when she says in her song in the Gospels: “He has made power in his arm, and scattered the arrogant with the thought of his heart. He has dislodged the powerful from their seats, and raised up the humble. He has sated the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty-handed” (Luke 1). We are told about this in Isaiah: “Lebanon will be turned into Carmel, and Carmel will be regarded as a forest” (Isaiah 29).

Here we see how the stubbornness of the Synagogue of the Jews was crushed, and the humility of the Church of the nations exalted; how the persecutors of the Christian faith, who once tore apart the flock of Christ like savage lions, have now been destroyed and reduced to nothing; and how those who proclaim Christ throughout the world have been raised up in a state of vigorous faith and exalted through the power of the virtues. The head has been turned into the tail and the tail into the head, because “Everyone who exalts himself will be brought low; and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Source: Commentary on Esther

[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 6:12-13

This is the change caused by the right hand of the Highest: the one who had just boasted about his power and was arrogant towards everyone else becomes viler and weaker than anyone else. When Mary the mother of our Lord considered the greatness of this divine ordering, she sang in her song of praise, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” And through Isaiah it is said about this same power, “Shall not Lebanon be transformed into Carmel, and Carmel be regarded as a forest?”

Source: EXPLANATION ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER 9