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1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;) 2 The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people. 3 And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater. 5 Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them. 6 And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men. 7 And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha, 8 And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha, 9 And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha, 10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand. 11 On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king. 12 And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done. 13 Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. 14 And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons. 15 For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand. 16 But the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey, 17 On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 18 But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof; and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. 20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, 21 To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, 22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. 23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them; 24 Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; 25 But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. 26 Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, 27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year; 28 And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed. 29 Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim. 30 And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, 31 To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry. 32 And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.
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[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:1-2
The twelfth month, as we said before, symbolizes the last era of our world when the Redeemer has been made incarnate and the preaching of the Gospel itself has spread throughout the entire world. And in the same way, the thirteenth day declares the light of faith and of good works, which—as the Gospels predict—is fulfilled every day by the faithful. For in the twelfth month, “on the thirteenth day of the month, when the slaughter of all the Jews was being readied and their enemies were eager for blood, the tables were turned and the Jews began to gain the upper hand, and to avenge themselves on their opponents.” This means that even though the enemies and persecutors of the name of Christ are constantly stirring up attacks against the community of the faithful—which maintains the true expression of the correct faith— and making every effort to oppress them, the latter have been helped by the grace of God and strengthened with the shield of faith and the arms of justice so that they might defeat their adversaries and carry back from them the spoils of glory. This they do by converting them to the light of faith and making them partners in the grace of Christ, after repelling their spiritual wickedness and the disseminators of error who were seducing them through various vices. “And no one dared to resist them.” That is, the fear of God’s majesty, which in the Church is made known by the gleam of miracles, thrashes soundly the hearts of fleshly creatures and compels them to yield to the word of God, which is naturally described in what follows...

Source: Commentary on Esther
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:1-2
The twelfth month, as we have said above, signifies the last age of the world when our Redeemer became incarnate and the preaching of the gospel spread over the entire world. In a similar way, the thirteenth day proclaims the light of faith and good works which is produced by the preaching of the gospel in the church through the faithful. Indeed, in the twelfth month on the thirteenth day when the destruction of all the Jews was being prepared and their enemies longed for their blood, the Jews, on the contrary, began to triumph and started taking revenge on their adversaries because they [represent] the assembly of the faithful where the true confession of the right faith resides who are helped by the grace of God and comforted by the shield of faith and the weapons of justice in the face of the enemies and persecutors of the name of Christ who persecute and oppress them wherever they are. The assembly of the faithful is thus able to defeat its enemies and to gain the triumph of glory over them.

Source: EXPLANATION ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER 12
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Esther 9:1
To revenge: The Jews on this occasion, by authority from the king, were made executioners of the public justice, for punishing by death a crime worthy of death, viz., a malicious conspiracy for extirpating their whole nation.
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:3-4
That is, the praiseworthy actions of our sacred teachers and the power of the virtues gave great honor and reverence to the mass of the faithful. Hence in the Acts of the Apostles, where we read that these first preachers of the Gospel were trying to teach and to care for the word of God, it is written: “For they were devoted to the teachings of the apostles, and to breaking bread together, and to their prayers. Every soul was full of awe, and many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles in Jerusalem, and there was great fear among them all” (Acts 2). And likewise: “Many signs and wonders were being performed among the people by the apostles; and they were all together in the portico of Solomon. But none of the others dared to join them, though the people were paying them homage” (Acts 5).

Source: Commentary on Esther
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:3-4
“All the officials of the provinces, the satraps and the governors, and the royal officials were supporting the Jews.” Certainly the praiseworthy action of the holy teachers and the strength of their virtue have contributed great honor and respect to the multitude of the faithful. Therefore, in the Acts of the Apostles, in which we read how the first preachers of the gospel labored to teach the word of God and cared for it, it is written, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.”

Source: EXPLANATION ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER 12
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:5-14
Queen Esther’s endeavor to successfully crush her enemies and root them out reveals the eagerness and zeal of a true queen, namely, of the holy church that constantly fights against her enemies and strives to defeat them completely and subdue them. And it is her voice the psalmist uses when he says, “I pursued my enemies and overtook them; and did not turn back until they were consumed. I struck them down so that they were unable to rise.” And when she first kills five hundred people in Susa, and then three hundred, she shows that eternal death awaits not only those who do not want to repent of their sins, but also those who neglect to adorn the faith of the Holy Trinity with good works.

Source: EXPLANATION ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER 12
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:5-10
What can it mean when we read that the Jews pursued their enemies and killed five hundred men in Shushan, except for the ten sons of Haman whom they nailed to gibbets? Merely that to the people of God, it is not only all the evildoers among the nations who appear to be loathsome and worthy of damnation when they persist in their wickedness, refuse to repent for their sins, and make no effort to obtain forgiveness for their offenses through the grace of the Holy Spirit; but also the actual Jews of the flesh, i.e. those who violated the Decalogue of the Law of Moses, and were guilty of the cross of Christ whom in their faithlessness they took responsibility for at his very passion, are quite rightly forced to bear the torments of Hell. And none of the chosen would deign to share in their wickedness, or to imitate their unspeakable actions; so it makes sense that the text would add that once the Jews had killed their enemies, they refused to touch or to handle any of the spoils of their property.

Source: Commentary on Esther
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:12-14
This contention of Queen Esther, in which she fights to have her enemies aggressively attacked and wiped out, expresses the zeal and ingenuity of the true queen, that is, of the holy Church which harasses her enemies without respite and struggles to scatter them completely and subject them to itself. It is in her voice that the Psalmist speaks: “I will harass my enemies, and I will encompass them, and I will not turn away until they are ruined; I will afflict them, and they cannot stand” (Psalms 18). In Shushan she killed first five hundred men, then three hundred, since she shows that not only those who refuse to repent their sins, but also those who fail to adorn their faith in the holy Trinity with good works, are worthy of perpetual death. So it happens that just as the Jews killed, in the course of two days, seventy-five thousand of their enemies, so too the faithful strive and attempt to truly defeat and scatter, in the light of the two Testaments, all those enemies who—because they are devoted to the five senses of the body, and experience the Law of God in the flesh—refuse to know it in spirit, complete and perfected by spiritual dogma through the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit. And yet no one wants to touch any of their property, because the chosen believers would never consent to sully themselves with the wickedness of the damned; rather, they make themselves in every way foreign to and separate from the false dogmas, and the evil deeds, of such people.

Source: Commentary on Esther
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Esther 9:15-23
In the face of all this, brothers and sisters, what should we do but give thanks to God, the king of all? Let us start by crying out the words of the psalm, “Blessed is the Lord, who has not let them eat us up.” Let us keep the feast in that way that he has established for our salvation—the holy day of Easter—so that we, along with the angels, may celebrate the heavenly feast. Remember that Israel, coming out of affliction to a state of rest, sang a song of praise for the victory as they kept the feast. And in the time of Esther the people kept a feast to the Lord because they had been delivered from a deadly decree. They called a feast, thanking and praising the Lord because he had changed the situation for them. Therefore, let us keep our promises to the Lord, confess our sins, and keep the feast to him—in behavior, moral conduct, and way of life. Let us keep it by praising the Lord, who has disciplined us so lightly but has never failed us nor forsaken us nor stopped speaking to us.

Source: FESTAL LETTERS 8
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Esther 9:15-23
When the whole nation of Israel was about to perish, blessed Esther defeated the tyrant’s anger simply by fasting and praying to God. By faith she changed the ruin of her people into safety. Those days are feast days for Israel; they used to call a feast when an enemy was slain or a conspiracy against the people was broken up and Israel was delivered. That is why Moses established the Feast of the Passover: because Pharaoh was killed and the people were delivered from bondage. So then, especially when tyrants were slain, temporal feasts and holidays were established in Judea. Now, however, the devil, that tyrant against the whole world, is slain. Therefore, our feast does not relate only to time but to eternity. It is a heavenly feast! We do not announce it as a shadow or a picture or a type but as the real thing.

Source: FESTAL LETTERS 4
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:17-19
Now, the Scripture tells us that some of the Jews carried out the killing of their enemies on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and stopped their slaughter on the fourteenth day when they held this festival; but that others carried out the killing of their enemies for two days, i.e. the thirteenth and the fourteenth of the aforementioned month, and finally held a formal rest on the fifteenth when they left off the slaughter. And this can only mean that some of the saints, having completed the labors which they carried out in the service of God by performing it according to the proper doctrine and living it properly, now have in their hands—even before the time of universal judgment—the Sabbath rest of eternal peace; while others endure in the flesh until the final day of resurrection, so that once all their enemies have been bested they will be suddenly changed through God’s power, and will attain eternal rest and blessed immortality for both their souls and their bodies. This we know from the statement that the apostle makes when he writes to the Corinthians: “Behold the mystery I am telling you: we will all, it is true, rise again, but we will not all be changed. In a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the final trumpet, the dead will rise up uncorrupted, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15). And to the Thessalonians: “For this we say to you in the word of the Lord: we will not precede those who are sleeping, since the Lord himself—in his command, and in the voice of the archangel, and in the trumpet of God—will come down from Heaven. And the dead who are in Christ will rise up first, and then those of us who are still alive, we who still remain, will be taken up together with those in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord always” (1 Thessalonians 4).

After all, the number fourteen, which contains twice seven, symbolizes the rest of souls from labor and worry of every kind; and fifteen, which combines the numbers seven and eight, prefigures the coming rest and the immortality of both souls and bodies; and so, once the mass of the chosen have completed the labors of the present life and victory over every enemy has been achieved, they will rejoice in the kingdom of Heaven in their eternal exultation and their love for one another. And there will be no end to this joy, because there will no longer be any further labors to cause us unhappiness.

Source: Commentary on Esther
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:20-23
For those who always faithfully perform pious labors, and good works, and who generously give charity, are fighting for this so that they will be worthy to win entry to eternal life in faith, hope and charity, in accordance with the teachings of the Gospels and the apostles; and so that by comforting both themselves—and those who obey them—in the midst of the troubles of this world, they will gain strength. So by rejoicing in hope they are patient in times of tribulation, they pray without respite, they give thanks for everything, and with pious prayers they place their suffering in the hands of the faithful Lord so that they may be repaid, through his help, with eternal happiness.

Source: Commentary on Esther
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:24-26
For wicked men often find that their desires are fulfilled in ways they had not expected to happen; and they are caught in the same traps they set to ensnare others, as the Scripture shows when it says: “The wicked are caught in their traps; and whoever digs a pit falls into it” (Proverbs 26). Hence Haman, who prefigures the enemies of the Church, was likewise forced to suffer the death he had planned for Mordecai. For the lot cast into an urn symbolizes the disposition of each and every thing in the mind of man, whose outcomes depend even so upon the judgment of God. Hence we are told by Solomon: “Lots are cast in the lap, but they are tempered by the Lord. For his way is not in the power of man; rather it belongs not to one who wills, or one who runs, but to God who grants mercy. For all things obey at his nod, and he does whatever he wishes in Heaven and on earth, on the sea and in all the depths” (Proverbs 16).

Source: Commentary on Esther
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:24-27
Very often people’s evil schemes turn out differently than they had hoped and the trap they had placed to capture others ensnares them, as the Scripture confirms, “The wicked are ensnared in their traps. And whoever digs a pit will fall into it.” Therefore also Haman, who prefigures the enemies of the church, was obligated to suffer the death that he had prepared for Mordecai. The lot cast into the urn represents the machinations of the human mind; but the result of such machinations entirely depends on divine judgment. Therefore it is said through Solomon, “The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is the Lord’s alone.”

Source: EXPLANATION ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER 13
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:27-28
So the days of lots—on which God gives his true followers victory over their enemies—will never fall into oblivion, but will be celebrated throughout the world in every generation since each of the faithful must declare, with firm hope, the coming rest of souls and the resurrection of bodies on the day of judgment; nor should any of the Churches of Christ throughout the world be bereft of this faith, but should be always mindful of this most salutary rite and be prepared at every moment, and should make themselves fit to receive the coming good so that what they celebrate here in this world they may possess there forever in faith and hope, in the truth of the thing itself and in eternal happiness. And for the present, while we are journeying through this life the ingenuity of the teachers, and the Church’s adherence to the precedent of Esther and Mordecai, ought to accomplish this along with us through teaching and exhortation, so that we are always devoted to the celebration and the cultivation of this faith.

Source: Commentary on Esther
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:28-32
The fateful days in which God gives the victory over the enemies to his true confessors must never be forgotten but must be celebrated all over the world by every generation, because the remembrance of the future rest of souls and of the resurrection of the bodies on the day of judgment must be kept alive with firm hope among all the faithful. And no church of Christ in the whole world must be deprived of this religious celebration but, always remembering this truly saving rite, must be ready at any moment and make herself worthy of receiving future blessings so that what she now celebrates in this world with faith and hope she may possess there forever in true reality and eternal blessedness. In the meantime, while we journey as pilgrims, the zeal of the teachers and the admonishment of the church must lead us to follow the example of Esther and Mordecai in doctrine and zeal so that we may be always devout in observing this rite which is to be celebrated and performed.

Source: EXPLANATION ON THE BOOK OF ESTHER 13
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 9:29-32
For we require this admonition so that we will have always in our hearts the peace of Christianity, and will adopt the truth of the Gospel itself; which will prevent us from inadvertently falling, through discord and disagreement, into the errors of the heretics from which there can be no salvation but certain damnation and ruin. So all those who recognize that, through the seed of the word of God, they have been reborn in baptism from the Church and the ministry of the sacred teachers as sons to God the Father, are certainly required to fast in piety, i.e. to lead a pious, chaste and modest life; to send up the cries of their prayers and teachings; to celebrate the days of lots, i.e. of the victory to come, with reverence and firm hope; and to observe with robust faith and good works everything contained in the book of the two Testaments.

Source: Commentary on Esther