Overjoyed at these special marks of honour, Haman eagerly recounted them to his wife and family, butdeclared that they availed him nothing so long as his rival was permitted to retain his place at the king’s gate. They, therefore, advised that a gallows 50 cubits high should be erected, and that he should request the king’s permission to hang Mordecai thereon. But that night, the monarch, unable to sleep, ordered certain of the chronicles to be read before him, and now for the first time learnt the service the Jewish exile had rendered by revealing the plot against his own life. In answer to his enquiries, he had just ascertained that no mark of the royal approval had been bestowed upon his benefactor, when Haman entered the court in the early morning to request that execution might be carried out upon his hated rival. The king enquired what ought to be done to the man he delighted to honour. Imagining that none but himself could be intended, the favourite suggested that he should be clad in royal apparel, crowned with the king’s diadem, and mounted on the royal mule, be conducted through the streets of Susa by one of the king’s most noble friends. The monarch approved, and bade him straightway confer all these marks of honour on no other than Mordecai. Not daring to disobey, he arrayed his rival in the gorgeous robes of the king, and conducted him through the streets of the city. Then with a heavy heart he returned home, and recounted to his family the strange events of the day. A presentiment of coming doom came over his relatives, but a hasty summons to the royal banquet cut short their deliberations. For the second time the monarch desired to learn the queen’s petition, and Esther now revealed the danger of her nation, and denounced the wicked conspirator. Filled with wrath Ahasuerus ordered his instant execution, and at the suggestion of one of the eunuchs he was hanged on the very gallows he had constructed for his rival (Esth. vii. 7–10).
But the execution of Haman was but a step in Mordecai’sdesigns for the delivery of his nation. The edict for the massacre was still in force, and couriers had already gone forth with it to the various provinces of the empire. Its revocation was forbidden by Persian law, but a second edict empowered the Jews to assume the defensive against their adversaries, of whom, banding themselves together, they slew 800 at Susa (Esth. ix. 6, 15), and 75,000 in the various provinces, while Haman’s ten sons shared their father’s fate (Esth. ix. 12, 16). In memory of this signal deliverance the Jews to this day celebrate the Feast of Purim or Lots, in ironical commemoration of their great enemy, who had resorted to this mode of augury for ascertaining an auspicious day for executing his bloody design against their nation. Preceded by a strict fast on the 13th of Adar[466], the festival is celebrated on the 14th and 15th with great rejoicings. According to modern usage the book of Esther is read in the Synagogue, and when the reader comes to the name of Haman, the entire assembly shout, Let his name be blotted out, let the name of the ungodly perish; and the conclusion of the service is followed by feasting and merriment.
CHAPTER IV.
TIMES OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. CLOSE OF THE CANON.
Ezra vii.–x. Neh. i.–xiii. B.C. 457–415.
IN the year B.C. 464 Artaxerxes Longimanus succeeded to the Persian throne. His reign was favourable to the Jews, and was signalised, B.C. 458, by a fresh migration to Jerusalem headed by Ezra, a descendant of Hilkiah the high-priest in the time of Josiah. A royal ordinance empowered him not only to receive contributions from his own nation scattered throughoutBabylonia for the adornment of the Temple at Jerusalem, but also to establish magistrates and judges throughout all Judea, and to claim assistance from the various pashas of the provinces through which he would pass (Ezr. vii. 11–26). Thus aided and encouraged, Ezra persuaded about 6,000 of his countrymen to take part in this second migration, amongst whom were many of the priesthood, both of the higher and lower orders. After a fast of three days at the river Ahava[467], to supplicate the Divine blessing on the enterprise, the expedition set out, and, though not escorted by a royal guard, reached Jerusalem in safety (Ezra viii. 32).
Ezra was well received by the Jewish governors, but was pained to find much to blame in the conduct of his countrymen. Forgetful of the commands of the Law, they had in many instances intermarried with the surrounding heathen tribes. He therefore devoted himself with all zeal to the correction of these abuses; proclaimed a fast by way of atonement for past transgressions, and succeeded in inducing many to put away their strange wives. At the same time he commenced a more complete reorganization of the people according to the Mosaic Law and the institutes of David, and, it is not improbable, a revision and rearrangement of the sacred Books (Ezra x. 1–17).
But though the Persian monarchs had not been unwilling to render aid in the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, their policy had hitherto forbidden the re-erection of the city itself, which still lay exposed and defenceless, its walls broken down and its gates burned with fire (Neh. i. 3), the Temple, and a few private dwellings, being the sole result of 80 years of effort. Inthe 20th year, however, of Artaxerxes, or B.C. 444, there arrived at Shusan a deputation from Jerusalem, with a sad account of the condition of the city, which they laid before Nehemiah, a Jew, probably of the tribe of Judah, who held a high position amongst the royal cup-bearers. Nehemiah instantly conceived the patriotic design of quitting the comforts of his present position, and aiding his countrymen in their difficulties. With fasting and prayer he sought the blessing of the Most High on his design, and shortly afterwards, in reply to the enquiries of the king why his countenance was so sad, poured forth the deep desire of his heart, and begged that he might be allowed to go to Judea, and rebuild the city of his fathers. Artaxerxes consented[468], on condition that he returned within a certain period; and having appointed him Tirshatha or governor of Judea, gave him letters to the pashas of the provinces through which he would pass, as also to Asaph the keeper of the royal forests, directing him to supply timber and other necessaries for the work (Neh. ii. 1–8).
Thus empowered and guarded by a troop of cavalry, Nehemiah set out on his journey. On his arrival at Jerusalem he for three days kept silence as to his intentions, but after a midnight survey of the ruined condition of the city, openly proclaimed the purport of his visit, and the royal commission under which he was acting. He advised the instant rebuilding of the citywalls, till which was done the colony could not but be a reproach to the surrounding tribes, with their city almost deserted, and the Temple itself falling into decay (Neh. ii. 12–20).
His project was received with acclamation, and a resolution was formed to press on with the work without delay. But the coming of the new governor had reached the ears of the Samaritans, and Sanballat the Horonite[469], Tobiah an Ammonite, and Geshem an Arabian, employed every artifice to defeat his designs. Nehemiah, however, was not to be daunted. His object was to finish the walls in the shortest possible time, and he therefore directed that while one half of the people wrought at the work, the other should stand by armed and ready to defend them, and that the workmen should hold in the one hand a weapon, and in the other their tools. Thus by dint of incredible exertions, within the brief space of 52 days Jerusalem was again girded and enclosed, the walls were rebuilt, the ancient towers set up, and the gateways were ready for the doors to be swung upon them (Neh. iv. 13–23).
Unable to impede by open violence the progress of the enterprise, Sanballat and his friends resorted to various stratagems to get Nehemiah out of the city. They began by proposing a conference with the governor in one of the villages of the plain of Ono in Benjamin. Four times was the proposition made, and as often declined. Then resort was had to a still more cunning artifice. Sanballat sent to Nehemiah an apparently friendly letter, announcing the prevalence of a rumour among the heathen nations settled in Samaria that he intended Jerusalem to become the capital of an independent kingdom, and had suborned prophets to prophesyof himself, There is a king in Judah. Such rumours were sure to reach the Persian court, but might be dissipated by a friendly conference. At the same time Noadiah a prophetess and others were bribed to represent to the governor the risk he was running, and to persuade him to take refuge in the fortress of the Temple. But Nehemiah saw through their designs, and refused to give them any pretext for accusing him of conscious guilt (Neh. vi. 1–14). In addition to these plots the governor had to be on his guard against treachery within the city itself, where many of the Jewish nobles were carrying on a secret correspondence with Tobiah, and even espoused his cause. But in spite of all obstacles the work went on, and the essential part of the governor’s design, the building of the gates, was accomplished.