Therefore have we commanded, that all they that are signified in writing unto you by Aman, who is ordained over the affairs, and is next unto us, shall all, with their wives and children, be utterly destroyed by the sword of their enemies, without all mercy and pity, the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar of this present year:
Read Chapter 13
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Second. Greek, "our second father. "(Calmet)
Complutensian, "the second after us, shall be all extirpated by "(Haydock)
This king is represented as very stupidly giving orders for the destruction of a nation which he never names; (Capellus) but he intimates that Aman would do it, in whom he placed the most unbounded confidence. (Haydock)
If the latter had any suspicions of the queen's being of that nation, he might very prudently abstain from mentioning the Jews even to the king, contenting himself with describing them so that they would easily be known by his agents; and, in effect, the king sufficiently pointed out the Jews, by saying that they followed laws different from all the world. (Houbigant)
Infidels generally represent them as a wicked race, enemies to all but their own nation. (Tacitus)
We need not wonder if Catholics be painted in the same colours, as the devil is still the same. (Haydock)
Fourteenth. Josephus has the same day, though the 13th is specified in Hebrew, (chap. iii. 12.) and in the Greek and Vulgate, chap. xvi. 20. We must, therefore, allow that the Jews might be slaughtered on both days, or that the Greek is incorrect in this place. (Calmet)
Salien thinks it would not be lawful to spare the Jews any longer than the 14th day; (Menochius) or the carnage was to cease on the 14th, as it did at Susa, chap. ix. 17, 19. (Tirinus)
