Part 538

A dream. . .This dream was prophetical and extraordinary: otherwise the general rule is not to observe dreams.

10:6. The little fountain which grew into a river, and was turned into a light, and into the sun, and abounded into many waters, is Esther, whom the king married, and made queen.

10:7. But the two dragons are I and Aman.

10:8. The nations that were assembled are they that endeavoured to destroy the name of the Jews.

10:9. And my nation is Israel, who cried to the Lord, and the Lord saved his people: and he delivered us from all evils, and hath wrought great signs and wonders among the nations:

10:10. And he commanded that there should be two lots, one of the people of God, and the other of all the nations.

10:11. And both lots came to the day appointed already from that time before God to all nations:

10:12. And the Lord remembered his people, and had mercy on his inheritance.

10:13. And these days shall be observed in the month of Adar on the fourteenth, and fifteenth day of the same month, with all diligence, and joy of the people gathered into one assembly, throughout all the generations hereafter of the people of Israel.

Esther Chapter 11

The dream of Mardochai, which in the ancient Greek and Latin Bibles was into the beginning of the book, but was detached by St. Jerome, and put in this place.

11:1. In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest, and of the Levitical race, and Ptolemy his son brought this epistle of Phurim, which they said Lysimachus the son of Ptolemy had interpreted in Jerusalem.

11:2. In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the great, in the first day of the month Nisan, Mardochai the son of Jair, the son of Semei, the son of Cis, of the tribe of Benjamin:

11:3. A Jew who dwelt in the city of Susan, a great man and among the first of the king's court, had a dream.

11:4. Now he was of the number of the captives, whom Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had carried away from Jerusalem with Jechonias king of Juda:

11:5. And this was his dream: Behold there were voices, and tumults, and thunders, and earthquakes, and a disturbance upon the earth.

11:6. And behold two great dragons came forth ready to fight one against another.

11:7. And at their cry all nations were stirred up to fight against the nation of the just.

11:8. And that was a day of darkness and danger, of tribulation and distress, and great fear upon the earth.

11:9. And the nation of the just was troubled fearing their own evils, and was prepared for death.

11:10. And they cried to God: and as they were crying, a little fountain grew into a very great river, and abounded into many waters.

11:11. The light and the sun rose up, and the humble were exalted, and they devoured the glorious.

11:12. And when Mardochai had seen this, and arose out of his bed, he was thinking what God would do: and he kept it fixed in his mind, desirous to know what the dream should signify.

Esther Chapter 12

Mardochai detects the conspiracy of the two eunuchs.

12:1. And he abode at that time in the king's court with Bagatha and Thara the king's eunuchs, who were porters of the palace.

12:2. And when he understood their designs, and had diligently searched into their projects, he learned that they went about to lay violent hands on king Artaxerxes, and he told the king thereof.

12:3. Then the king had them both examined, and after they had confessed, commanded them to be put to death.