Page 259 - Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors, Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors. Vol. 1

Empire to this man. And … such a man was the Israelite Mordecai who, according to
the Persian law of that time, had no right to this kind of power. But this is not all; the
most intriguing things are still ahead:

3. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and be-
sought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device
that he had devised against the Jews.

4. Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and
stood before the king,

5. And said, If it please the king, and if I have favour in his sight, and the thing
seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse
the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to
destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces:
6. For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how
can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?

7. Then king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew,
Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the
gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews.

8. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal it
with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed
with the king's ring, may no man reverse.

153
………………………………………
An interesting situation has loomed: the Persian king voluntarily “offers” Mor-
decai and Esther the means to write everything they wish in his name and to seal it
with the king’s ring which he gave to Mordecai. He, at least, knew what Haman
wrote in the letters sealed by the king’s seal, because he declares them valid and
therefore cannot cancel them. This means that he knew what Haman had prepared,
that is, the king knew about the coup D’etat which the Jews had prepared in order to
take power in the Persian Empire. And here is what Mordecai and Esther wrote in the
new letters sealed with the king’s seal:
11. Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather them-
selves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay and to cause to perish,
all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones
and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,

12. Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, namely, upon the thir-
teenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

154
………………………………………
Just as in the Book of Joshua, the Book of Esther prescribes that it was neces-

153 Ibid.
154 Ibid.

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