ESTHER CHAPTER 9 - 16

ESTHER 9

1 In the twelfth month, that is, the month
Of Adar, on the thirteenth day,
Time came for the king’s orders’ sway
That his decree be done at once.
On the day that the enemies
Of the Jews hoped for victories,
The opposite occurred, in that
The Jews themselves beat them out flat
Who hated them. 2 The Jews around
Gathered together on the ground
In their cities throughout all lands
Of King Ahasuerus hands
Laying on those who sought their harm.
No one could withstand their alarm,
Because fear of them fell upon
All people. 3 And all the chiefs drawn
From provinces, the satraps and
The governors, and all in hand
To do the king’s work, helped the Jews,
Because fear of Mordecai
Fell on them. 4 For Mordecai
Was great in the king’s palace pews,
And his fame spread throughout the land,
For this man Mordecai’s stand
Became greater ever more grand.
5 The Jews defeated all their foes,
With the stroke of the sword that goes
With slaughter and destruction’s woes,
And did what they pleased with all those
Who hated them. 6 And in Shushan
The fortress the Jews killed the clan
Of five hundred men in the plan.
7 Also Parshandatha, Dalphon,
Aspatha, 8 Poratha, the spawn
Of Adalia, Aridatha,
9 Parmashta, Arisai by law,
Aridai, and Vajezatha,
10 The ten sons of Haman the son
Of Hammedatha, the foe won
Of the Jews, they killed, but did not
Lay hands on the spoil in the plot.

You spoke commandment on the day that You
Brought Israel out from the Egyptian crew,
That killing was prohibited. I think
That this final solution on the brink
Flies against every principle. You wink
Perhaps when the folk rose to kill the score
Of Haman’s friends when banging on the door,
And yet I cringe to say the self-defence
Is any thing of joy in Israel’s tents.
But then perhaps one ought to joy in what
Is necessary when the door is shut.
I’ll kill the gross intruder for the crime
Of stepping on my prose and on my rhyme,
And see if joy elates me in the mime.

11 On that day the number of those
Who were killed in Shushan where rose
The fortress was brought to the king.
12 The king told Queen Esther the thing,
“The Jews have killed in destroying
Five hundred men in Shushan’s fort,
And ten sons of Haman in sport.
What have they done around the rest
Of the king’s provinces for best?
So what is your petition now?
It shall be granted anyhow.
Or what is your further request?
It shall be done.” 13 Then Esther said,
“If it please the king, let be sped
To the Jews in Shushan to do
Again tomorrow by the cue
Of this day’s decree, and in view
Let Haman’s ten sons be hanged too
On the gallows.” 14 So the king said
“For this also to be outspread,
The decree was made in Shushan.”
And they hanged Haman’s ten sons’ clan.
15 And the Jews who were in Shushan
Gathered together on the day
Fourteenth of month of Adar way
And killed three hundred men in sway
At Shushan, but they did not lay
A hand on the plunder that day.

From sweet petitioner of peace and love
Queen Esther in a day turns to above
Petitioner of ten lives at the noose.
The ugly duckling turns out to be goose.
Beloved, my rate of seeing how the wrong
Dispenses on the world in riot’s song
Turns me too into war monger all along
The hedges of my wicket and my lane.
I do not yet petition You for gain,
Since I live fair and spare as any fane,
And yet my prayers for president and judge
Are speckled with petitions for the smudge.
Beloved, hear me or not, but see the grey
That steals upon the soul from day to day.

16 The rest of the Jews in the king’s
Provinces gathered in the wings
Protecting their lives, and had rest
From their enemies, and killed best
Seventy-five thousand of their foes,
But laid no hand on spoils of those.
17 This was on the thirteenth day of
The month of Adar as above.
And on the fourteenth day they rested
And made a day of feasting vested
With gladness. 18 But Jews at Shushan
Assembled on the thirteenth van
As well as on the fourteenth, and
On the fifteenth they rested, and
Made it a day of feasting grand.
19 That’s why the village Jews who dwelt
In the unwalled towns always felt
Like celebrating day fourteen
Of Adar’s month with gladness seen,
And feasting, as a holiday,
Exchanging gifts in joyful play.
20 And Mordecai wrote these things
And sent letters to all the wings
Of Jews, near and far, who were in
All the provinces with their kin,
The lands of King Ahasuerus,
21 Establish you each year to fear us
The fourteenth and the fifteenth days
Of the month of Adar for praise,
22 As the days on which Jews had rest
From their foes, as the month at best
Was turned from sorrow into joy
For them, and from mourning’s employ
Into a holiday, that they
Should make them days of feast and joy,
Of sending gifts to one another
And also gifts to the poor brother.

The Jews still come in spring to drink in bout
And turn a gift and cartwheel all about.
I’ve seen the neighbour in her shining dress
And sent my daughter to the fine address
To play with Jewish children at the hall
Where they are gathered under Esther’s pall.
My daughter was too shocked to see the drink
Poured out faster than any man could think.
Fact is, Beloved, this book of Esther is
From start to finish a more winely fizz
Than any other in the sacred wheel.
I here oppose all drinking to a heel.
Let Purim rest uncelebrated if
The drunken only rise up in its skiff.

23 The Jews followed the custom right
That they had started from the fight,
As Mordecai wrote in sight,
24 Because Haman, the son and wight
Of Hammedatha Agagite,
The enemy of all the Jews,
Had plotted against the Jews’ crews
To liquidate them, and cast lot
Or pur to consume them when fought,
25 But when she came before the king,
He ordered by epistle’s sting
This wicked plan which he’d devised
Against the Jews should revised
On his own head, and that he and
His sons be hanged on gallows’ band.
26 So they called these days Purim for
The name of Pur or lot. Therefore,
Because of all this letter’s things,
What they had seen of this thing’s springs,
And what had happened in their flings,
27 The Jews set it upon themselves
And their descendants on their shelves
And all who joined them, that without
Fail they should celebrate the shout
Of these two days every year, by
The decree and in the time’s fly,
28 These days should be remembered and
Kept through each generation’s band,
Each family, every province, and
Each city, that these days of great
Purim should not fail nor be late
Among the Jews, and their memory
Should not depart from children’s fee.

If they just keep the drinking in the place
Where they are gathered in one kin and race
I’ll not complain for shout or din or trace
Of helpless failure to distinguish face
Of Haman or of Mordecai’s grace.
But I’ll not share the joy if joy it be
To bring the tainted cup in taste of me,
And I’ll not harbour fancies of the spree
To mind Haman’s fate and eternally.
Instead I raise a prayer to mind the time
That Hitler bore the brunt of wicked climb
To legislate a gross Haman-like crime.
There’s nothing here to celebrate, I swear,
As I breathe the anti-semitic air.

29 Queen Esther, Abihail daughter,
With Mordecai the Jew with her,
Wrote with full power to confirm this
Second letter on Purim’s bliss.
30 He sent letters to all the Jews,
One hundred twenty-seven coups
Of provinces of the kingdom
Of Ahasuerus, with words rum
Of peace and truth, 31 and to confirm
These days of Purim at their term
Appointed, as Mordecai
The Jew and Queen Esther for aye
Had set them up, as they decreed
For themselves and descendants’ creed
In matters of their fasting and
Lamenting. 32 And so the command
Of Esther confirmed these things’ look
Of Purim, written in the book.

The fast I take and multiply and find
That fasting is a thing to clear the mind.
I see the world through eyes that are not blind.
The politics of my survival here
Are awful in intent as well as drear.
I have no folk to lobby for my gear
As I gather with family and tear
On Sabbath day to realize the stroke
Is sudden and forewarned not by a croak.
The evil eye about me could be shorn
As fast as once to read commandment born
On Sinai, but the reading still comes slow,
The heathen heart begins at once to glow
With violence against the humble show.

ESTHER 10

1 And King Ahasuerus laid
A tribute on the land and stayed
Islands of the sea. 2 Now the acts
Of all his power and might in facts,
And tale of Mordecai’s feats,
In which the king advanced his treats,
Are they not written in the book
Of chronicles of kings that took
Rule of Media and Persian nook?
3 Mordecai the Jew was set
Next King Ahasuerus met,
Was great among the Jews and well
Received by crowds of Israel,
Seeking the good of his folk and
Speaking peace to all kin in band.

This book of Esther is a lovely thing,
And yet a throwback to the former king,
The son of Kish, the Benjamite, to sing
A late revival of that dynasty.
Set in the middle of the shining words
Of David’s kingship over beast and birds,
The book of Esther comes down to relate
How ancient hopes and dreams of power and state
Return perennially to small and great.
Beloved, the dynasties of human time
Revolve about the centuries sublime
To twinkle on the sudden breath of air
That rises unexpected from nowhere.
You only above all things see the share.

4 And Mordecai said “These things
Have come from Ælohim on wings.
5 “For I remember the dream I
Had about these matters in sky,
And none of them has failed to be
Fulfilled. 6 “The tiny spring to see
That turned into a river, and
There was light and the sun too and
Abundant water, that stream is
Esther, whom the king took as his
Wife and made queen of all the land.
7 “The two dragons are Haman and
Myself. 8 “The nations are those that
Gathered to destroy where they’re at
The name of all the Jews out flat.
9 “My nation, this is Israel,
Who cried out to Ælohim well
And were saved. YHWH has saved His folk,
YHWH has delivered from the stroke,
Ælohim’s done great signs and wonders,
Which have not occurred in such thunders
Among the nations. 10 “For this reason
He has made two lots in their season,
One for Ælohim’s people and
One for all the nations in band.
11 “And these two lots came to the hour
And moment and day of their power
Before Ælohim and all lands.
12 “Ælohim minded His folk’s bands,
Affirming His heritage hands.
13 “So they will observe these days in
The month of Adar without sin,
On the fourteenth and fifteenth day
Of that month, with assembly’s play
And joy and gladness before God,
For generations on the sod
Among Israel’s folk in their way.”

The dream of Mordecai with the wings
Of dragons seething fire of designings
Comes to float on the stream and river where
Queen Esther is reflected as the fair
Chosen of heaven to make the pagan bare.
Truth is that Purim is a heathen rite
And sanctified by legend to be bright,
The Queen of heaven is taken down to be
The patron of the people faithfully
Beside the throne of justice where despair
Meets true reality upon the stair.
Beloved, I turn from queens of every ilk,
Despite fair Esther’s gift of meat and milk,
And bear the woollen garb instead of silk.

ESTHER 11

1 Now in the fourth year of the reign
Of Ptolemy and for his gain
Cleopatra, Dositheus,
Who said he was a priest for fuss
And a Levite, and Ptolemy
His son brought to Egypt to see
This letter of Purim, which they
Said was truthful and had in way
Been translated by one to say
Lysimachus the son and ray
Of Ptolemy, one of the gem
Residents of Jerusalem.
2 In the second year of the reign
Of Artaxerxes the Great fane,
On the first day of Nisan there,
Mordecai the son of Jair,
Son of Shimei, the son of Kish,
Of the tribe of Benjamin’s dish,
Had a dream. 3 Now he was a Jew,
Dwelling in the city and view
Of Susa, a great man, to serve
In court of the king not to swerve.
4 He was one of the captives whom
Nebuchadnezzar in the bloom
Of king of Babylon had brought
From Jerusalem with the sot
Jeconiah king of Judea.
And this was his dream then to see you:
5 Behold, noise and confusion, and
Thunders and earthquake on the land!
6 And see, two great dragons came out,
Both ready to fight in the rout,
And they roared terribly about.
7 And at their roaring every nation
Prepared for war, to fight in station
Against the nation of the just.
8 And see, a day of darkness, lust
And gloom and tribulation and
Distress, affliction on the land!

The dragon stories of the Persians make
A truce with dragons of more ancient stake
Between the rivers of both time and quake.
The second verse in Genesis appears
To show the dragon too in all its fears,
And from that time to Revelation’s tears
The dragons show their claws’ twelve hundred years.
The dragon stories still come to awake
The dreamers from their hopeful sugar cake
And drop the wishing well for Haman’s sake.
The heart of David too is pushed to tell
How many dragons he’s able to fell
Until the faith of frozen Israel
Arouses at the tolling of the bell.

9 And all the righteous nation lay
In trouble, they feared evil’s sway,
Prepared to perish in the way.
10 Then they cried out to Ælohim,
And from their cry, as it would seem,
A tiny spring, from which there came
A mighty river, one of fame
With an abundant water’s stream.
11 Light came, and the sun rose on high,
And the lowly raised up thereby,
And they consumed those honoured by.
12 Mordecai saw in this dream
What had determined Ælohim
To do, and after that he woke,
He had it on his mind and spoke
All day to understand the sense
Of his dream as detail prevents.

The dragons and the stream in earthly plot,
Opening gates of soil and water hot,
Appear beneath another figure got
That Mordecai does not see in gleams
To translate to the reader of his themes.
The light arising from the hidden bed
Is also Persian myth of solar dread,
To sit beside the earthly queen awhile,
Celestial in benignity and smile.
Beloved, the pagan plot of heaven’s queen
Peeks through the written words on human scene.
We cannot rid ourselves of mythic thought,
The human mind is structured by the lot,
And still You visit us as like as not.

ESTHER 12

1 Now Mordecai took his rest
In the courtyard among the best,
With Gabatha and Tharra, two
Of the king’s eunuchs who kept view
Over the courtyard to invest.
2 He overheard their conversation
And sought out their purpose in ration,
And learned that they were planning to
Lay hands on Artaxerxes too,
The king, and he informed the king
About what they planned, everything.
3 The king examined the two eunuchs,
And when they confessed in their tunics,
They were led to the execution.
4 The king made record’s institution
Of these things, and Mordecai
Wrote an account of them laid by.
5 The king ordered Mordecai
To serve in the court and thereby
Rewarded him for all these things.
6 But Haman, the son of the wings
Of Hammedatha, a Bougaean,
Was in great honour and to stay on
With the king, and he sought to hurt
Mordecai and his folk curt
Because of the two eunuchs’ dirt.

The binding lines of kinship always take
A precedence on justice for the sake
Of nepotism. Anyone who runs
To serve a foreign king and shakes his buns
Must have agendas ready by the tons.
Haman is ready to support the crew
That comes from his own kin and country too.
I too have kin in every race it seems,
And that is why though I love all in gleams,
I have no homeland nor community.
I alone am able with loyalty
To surmount the call of kinship in store.
But by the same token upon the floor,
No king would trust in my fidelity.

ESTHER 13

1 This is a copy of the letter.
“The Great King, Artaxerxes better,
To chiefs of hundred twenty-seven
Provinces spread out under heaven
From India to Ethiopia
And to the governors in law
Under them, the king writes them thus.
2 “As ruling chief of omnibus
And master of the whole world here,
Not puffed up with power to appear,
But acting always with just cause
And kindness to settle in laws
The lives of my subjects in peace
To make my kingdom a surcease
Of tranquil movement all around,
Setting up peace all men have found.
3 “When I asked counsellors how this
Might be brought about not to miss,
Haman, among us wise and sound,
Distinguished for unchanging round
Of good will and fidelity,
Attaining to second degree
In the kingdom, 4 “remarked that there
Was among all nations to share
In the world scattered hostile folk
Who have laws contrary in yoke
To those of every nation and
Constantly disregard command
Of kings, so unity that we
In honour cannot come to be
In the kingdom. 5 “We understand
That this people, and it alone,
Stands always opposing the throne
To all men, and perversely go
After a strange manner of show
In life and laws, as ill-disposed
To our government as disclosed,
To do all the harm that they can
So that our kingdom may not span
Stability. 6 “So we’ve decreed
That those shown to you with good speed
In the decretals of Haman,
Who is head of affairs, a man
As second counsel, shall all be
With wives and children utterly
Destroyed by sword of enemy
Without pity, without mercy,
On fourteenth day of the twelfth month,
Adar, of this present year once,
7 “So that those who have long been and
Are now hostile may in one band
Go to Hades in violence,
And leave our government from hence
Secure and untroubled in tents.”

The king’s a victim of the civil servant.
Beloved, see this and try to be observant.
Who have the power will often step aside
Pretending civil servants are so snide
And are so evil no one can abide.
No doubt, Beloved, the accusation’s true,
But I ask who has made them so to do,
And who has paid their salary or worse
Let them get off the hook for every curse
Of their extortion on the public purse.
Beloved, the servants of the state are met
In evil only by the church’s set.
Just think how clear the thing is now to me,
What wonders of iniquity You see!

8 Then Mordecai prayed to YHWH,
Calling to mind all works of YHWH.
He said 9 “O Lord, YHWH, King to rule
Over all things, for all the pool
Of universe is in your power
And there is no one like a tower
Against it if it is Your will
To save Israel and save them still.
10 “For You have made the heaven and earth
And every wondered thing of worth,
11 “And You are Lord of all, there’s none
Who can resist you, YHWH, when done.
12 “You know all things, You know, O YHWH,
That not in insolence or pride
Or love of glory on my side
That I did this, refused to bow
To this proud Haman anyhow.
13 “For I would have willingly kissed
The soles of his feet and not missed
To save Israel! 14 “But I did this,
That I might not set human glory
Above the glory of God’s story,
And I’ll not bow to any one
But You, who are my Lord alone,
And I’ll not do these things in pride.
15 “Now, O YHWH Ælohim and King,
Abraham’s Ælohim, take wing
To save your people, for the eyes
Of enemies here to despise
Us to destruction, they desire
To burn Your heritage with fire,
That was Yours from the start entire.
16 “Do not neglect Your portion, which
You bought for Yourself from the ditch
Of the Nile and from Egypt’s land.
17 “Hear my prayer, and have mercy on
Your heritage, turn sorrow’s dawn
To feasting, that we may live on
And sing praise to your name, O YHWH,
Do not destroy the mouth of those
Who praised You on the day You chose.”
18 And all Israel cried mightily,
For death was there for them to see.

In all his praying sweetly to Your praise
A Psalm most lovely in its chosen lays,
I still find Mordecai justifying
His actions against Haman in defying.
The guilty conscience seeks a loving salve
More than the innocent should ever have.
He’s innocent, it’s true, and yet he went
About to selling cousin in the tent
Of marriage to achieve a better grasp
On throne and power with folded hands to clasp.
His motive was to save if needed folk
Who were his relatives under Your yoke.
But motive does not purify in all
The stain of climbing up to power’s call.

ESTHER 14

1 And Esther the queen panickedly
Fled to YHWH in anxiety,
2 She took off her splendid clothing
And put on garments of distress
Sackcloth of her bitter mourning,
And instead of perfumes’ address
Of costly weal, covered her head
With ashes and dung there outspread,
And utterly humbled herself,
And every part that she like elf
Loved to adorn she covered in
A tangled matt of hair within.
3 And she prayed to YHWH Ælohim
Of Israel, and said “YHWH, You
Only are our King, help me too,
Who am alone and have no aid
But You, 4 “for my danger is paid
Into my hand. 5 “Since I was born
I have heard in the tribe of scorn
Of my kin only You, O YHWH,
Took Israel from all nations’ book,
And our fathers from among all
Their ancestors, to give in stall
An everlasting heritage,
And that You did for them in stage
All that You promised age to age.
6 “And now we have sinned before You,
And You have given us to the crew
Of enemies, 7 “because we bowed
To glorify their gods in crowd.
And You are righteous only, YHWH!

Confession of Queen Esther here relates
No doubt to serving false gods in estates
Of Judah in the generation past,
And not to her own sin before the blast,
Unless, of course, her roaming in the court
Of Persian king entailed some idol sport.
Confession of Queen Esther sees her hair
All matted and let down in disrepair,
And that alone’s enough to catch Your eye,
Beloved, to see the lovely matron sigh.
The prayer of hope and despair in one breath
Is all that is between the queen and death,
And yet not even that is mine to take
Who stand without a plea before Your stake.

8 “And now they are not satisfied
That we in bitter slavery bide,
But they’ve covenanted with their
Idols 9 “to abolish the share
Of what Your mouth has ordained and
To destroy Your heritage land,
To stop the mouths of those who praise
You and quench your altar and stays,
Your house in glory, 10 and to ope
The mouths of foreign folk to hope
For praise of vain idols, in scope
To magnify for every one,
A mortal king when he is done.
11 “O YHWH, do not surrender Your
Rule to what has no being’s store,
And don’t let them mock at our fate,
But turn their plan on their own pate,
And make example of the man
Who made against us such a plan.
12 “Remember, O Lord, make You known
In this hour of affliction’s groan,
And give me courage, King of gods
And Master of all earth and sods.
13 “Put eloquent words in my speach
Before the lion, and turn each
To hate the man who’s fighting us,
So there may be end to his fuss,
And those who take hope in his bus.
14 “But save us by your hand, and aid
Me, who am alone and afraid
With no helper but you, O YHWH.

Brave queen! The beautiful and perfumed dame
Bows before You alone to plead Your name.
The idols of the heathen compensate
For lack of zeal before the altar’s weight,
And yet they covenant with joyful hate
With idols in state to annihilate
The people of the Lord, I see their game.
Brave queen! We need a queen like her today,
Who stand before the idols that bear sway
In market place for coffee and for flood
Of oil dredged up and paid with human blood.
To buy the very food our mouths now taste
Requires the competition of that waste,
Their price is guaranteed by business aced.

15 “You have knowledge of all things true,
And You know that I hate the great
Splendour of the wicked in state,
Abhor the bed uncircumcised
And of the alien apprised.
16 “And You know my necessity,
That I hate the sign of the fee
Of my position on my head
The days I appear to my dread
In public. I abhor it like
A menstruous rag, and do not strike
To wear it on the days when I
Am at leisure. 17 “And as I cry
Your servant has not eaten at
Haman’s table, and I’ve not sat
To honour the king’s feast or drunk
The wine of the libations sunk.
18 “Your servant has had no joy since
The day that I was brought to wince
Here until now, except in You,
YHWH, Abraham’s Ælohim too.
19 “O Ælohim, whose might’s on all,
Hear the voice of despairing call,
And save us from the wicked hand,
And save me from my fear to stand!”

Queen Esther is not shy to tell You that
She is disgusted by the night-time mat
Upon which the uncircumcised has lain
To father upon her his ugly stain.
If good Queen Esther is so loath to lie
With Artaxerxes for his penile pie,
She must be good at hiding it, for fie!
She’s chosen above all the others who
Would only be too glad to lie and do.
Beloved, I take in cautious faith the word
That Esther spoke, and believe what occurred,
And without doubt conceive her horror stayed
Every time she came to his bed and played.
You only have the human heart displayed.

ESTHER 15

1 The third day, when she ended prayer,
She took off the garments with care
In which she had worshiped, and made
Herself in splendid clothes arrayed.
2 Majestically adorned, the aid
Of the all-seeing God invoked
As Saviour, she took two maids cloaked
With her, 3 to lean daintily on,
4 While one followed to dote upon
Her train. 5 She shone with perfect grace,
She looked happy in heart and face,
As if beloved, but her heart froze
With fear within her as she rose.
6 When she had gone through all the doors,
She stood upon the king’s own floors.
Seated upon his royal throne,
He was arrayed in majesty,
Covered with gold and precious stone,
Most terrifying one to see.

I come before Your throne, Beloved, and wear
No longer sackcloth nor the ragged bare
Wool clothing of the dervish, but I place
Upon my heart and hands and feet and face
The jewelled marks of golden love and grace
That I receive from You in morning’s trace,
The universe lit up with what I wear
Of spangles showered on me everywhere.
Like Esther with her crown of stars to share
The morning light, I come to You and sing
The Psalm the morning pages come to bring,
In chorus of the titmouse on the wing,
With shy notes of the hare to nibble twig,
I waken to Your love of grape and fig.

7 Lifting his face, flushed in splendour,
He looked at her with fierce anger.
The queen stopped, and turned pale and faint,
Collapsing on her maid’s restraint
Who went before her. 8 Then God turned
The king’s spirit to gentle learned,
Alarmed he sprang down from his throne
And took her in his arms alone
Until she came to herself. And
He comforted her, soothing brand,
And said to her, 9 “What is it, Esther?
I am just your brother investor.
Take courage, 10 you shall not die, for
Our law’s only to the folk’s score.
Come near.” 11 He raised the golden sceptre
And touched it to her neck, 12 and kept her,
And said, “Speak to me.” 13 And she said
To him, “I saw you, my lord, led
Like an angel of God and my
Heart was shaken with fear at cry
Of your glory. 14 For you are great,
My lord, and your face without hate
Is full of grace.” 15 But as she spoke,
She fell fainting as at a stroke.
16 The king was agitated, and
His servants tried to give a hand.

I faint for fear and grief to see Your brow
In anger turned on me, who pull Your plough.
The tantrum that You work upon the sky
Turned red and angry with the morning cry
I bear as bear I can, and turn away
From all the glory thrust upon my day.
Beloved, I turn and return as the guest
Replies to the abundance to invest
The breakfast table rich with meal and fruit
More than I need or could in naked boot.
The sounding wrath of thunder on my ears
Awakens to the morning-tide of fears,
And Sinai grips my heart and lets me go
No further than the lightnings’ glories show.

ESTHER 16

1 Here follows the letter he wrote.
“The Great King, Artaxerxes’ note,
To rulers of the provinces
From India westward to what is
Ethiopia, one hundred
And twenty-seven satrapies,
And to those who are loyal bred
To our reign, greeting from the head.
2 “The more they’re honored by too great
Kindness of benefactors’ state,
The more proud many men become.
3 “They seek not just to injure some
Of our subjects, but in their great
Ineptitude to stand the rate
Of good they even try to scheme
Against their own patrons in dream.
4 “Not only do they take away
Gratefulness from the human sway,
But drawn by boasts of those who know
Nothing of goodness, only show,
They reckon they’ll escape the row
Of evil-hating justice that
Is God’s, who sees all things out flat.
5 “And often many of those who
Are set in places of power true
Have been made to participate
In shedding innocent blood’s rate,
Calamities not to repair
By persuasion of friends who dare,
Entrusted with public affair,
6 “When these men by false trickery
Of their evil natures to plea
Beguile the sincere good will of
Their sovereigns spoken of above.
7 “What has been wickedly done by
The pestilent behaviour’s try
Of those who wield power wickedly,
Not from old records can it be
Seen as much as what’s now to hand.

The king is not too happy to be tricked.
That’s something in a warning to the picked
Who run the day to day for kings and men
Who govern at the heights of halogen.
Who seek the service of the crown beware
To do in everything only what’s fair,
And what is known to prince before the eyes
Of servants and marauders in disguise.
Beloved, I find Your service in this state
Both hard and easy in my temperate
Life fraught with rest and leisure by the great.
The books are stacked against me, though, since You
Never say anything to chide Your crew,
Unless I find it in Your Scriptures true.

8 “In future we’ll take care to brand
Our kingdom quiet and in peace
For all men, 9 “by changing release,
And always judging what comes under
Our eyes with more justice than wonder.
10 “Haman, the son of Hammedatha,
A Macedonian disaster
Really an alien to the blood
Persian, and quite devoid of flood
Of our kindliness, having been
Our guest, 11 “so far enjoyed with sin
The good will that we have for each
And every nation in our reach
That he was called our counsellor
And always bowed down to before
By all as the one second to
The royal throne of all the crew.
12 “Unable to restrain his pride,
He tried to take our reign beside
And snuff out our life in the tide.
13 “With craft and deceit he desired
Destruction of Mordecai,
Our saviour, benefactor fired,
And of Esther, the blameless, shy
Partner of our kingdom, to make
Destruction for their nation’s sake.
14 “He thought in this way he would find
Us undefended and would bind
The kingdom of the Persians to
The Macedonians in crew.

The king is certain all the blame’s to find
In fact that Haman is another kind.
If he had been a Persian, he’d have shown
The kindliness of Persian as home-grown.
But since he was a Macedonian,
His tale is filled with grief and greed as can,
And everywhere he goes try as he will
He cannot escape ethnic cleansing’s bill.
Beloved, racism is a splendoured sport
Relieving all men of their sin at court,
And giving excuse for the last retort.
Racism is the grace that sets all free
Who are within the kingly company,
And justifies the ways and means to be.

15 “But we find that the Jews consigned
To liquidation by this man
Above all cursed, are in the plan
Not evildoers but are kept
By most righteous laws 16 “and are ept
Sons of the Most High mighty God,
Lifting above the earth and sod,
Who’s led the kingdom both for us
And for our ancestors in bus.
17 “You will therefore do well not to
Put in execution the cue
Of letters sent by Haman son
Of Hammedatha, 18 “since the one
Himself who did these things has been
Hanged at Susa’s gate for his sin,
With all his household in the din.
For God, who rules over all things,
Has quickly inflicted his stings,
The punishment that he deserved.
19 “Therefore post a copy unswerved
Of this letter publicly in
Every place, and permit the bin
Of Jews to live by their own laws.
20 “And give them reinforcements’ claws,
So that on the thirteenth day of
The twelfth month of Adar above,
On that very day they may take
To defend themselves for the sake
Of those who attack them at time
Of their affliction as a crime.
21 “For God, who rules over all things,
Has made this day to be new springs
Of joy to his chosen instead
Of a day of destruction’s dread.

The king is glad to help the Jews when they
Turn out to support him in every way.
But if the royal interests of the day
Were turned to left or right and there to stay,
He’d soon turn back to Haman for the help
Of Haman’s ruthless hand and for his whelp.
The king is glad to aid when things look like
He needs the Jews to protect him from spike,
And so he lends a hand to help them slay
Their enemies upon that fateful pay.
The Persian contact was a help in time,
But when Alexander arose to climb,
He left a legacy to harry Jews
Who helped the Persians combat Grecian views.

22 “Therefore you shall observe all this
With all good cheer as not to miss
A holiday among your fêtes
Of commemorative banquets,
23 “So that both now and here to come
It may mean salvation in some
For us and loyal Persians’ hosts,
But that for those who plot in boasts
Against us it may be reminder
Of destruction of the unkinder.
24 “Every city and country here
That does not act by this in fear
Shall be destroyed in wrath with spear
And fire. It shall be made not just
Impassable for men, but must
Also most hateful for all time
To beasts and birds in prose and rhyme.”

Beloved, I think back on the Persian queen,
Named Hadassah and Esther on the scene
Of ruthless competition for the throne,
And wonder that men are so wicked grown.
Beloved, I think back on the little girl
Who had no choice but marry blackened churl,
And weep to think that Esther may have had
A secret love at home that made her sad.
All things of hope and happiness must set
Before the need of country to be met.
I stand aside from matters that relate
To crowns and presidents, and heads of state,
And rather think if this year’s mushrooms will
Be thick enough upon the berry hill.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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