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New American Bible

2002 11 11
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The Historical Books
- Esther
  - Chapter F

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Chapter F

Then Mordecai said: "This is the work of God.

I recall the dream I had about these very things, and not a single detail has been left unfulfilled-

the tiny spring that grew into a river, the light of the sun, the many waters. The river is Esther, whom the king married and made queen.

The two dragons are myself and Haman.

The nations are those who assembled to destroy the name of the Jews,

but my people is Israel, who cried to God and was saved. "The LORD saved his people and delivered us from all these evils. God worked signs and great wonders, such as have not occurred among the nations.

^¹ For this purpose he arranged two lots: one for the people of God, the second for all the other nations.

These two lots were fulfilled in the hour, the time, and the day of judgment before God and among all the nations.

God remembered his people and rendered justice to his inheritance.

^² "Gathering together with joy and happiness before God, they shall celebrate these days on the fourteenth and fifteenth of the month Adar throughout all future generations of his people Israel."

1 [7] Two lots: in this passage of the Greek text, which gives a more religious interpretation of the feast, the two lots are drawn by God to determine, respectively, the destiny of Israel and that of the nations. In ⇒ Esther 3:7 above, translated from the Hebrew text, the feast is called Purim because of the lots which Aman Cast to determine the day for the extinction of the Jews.

2 [10] The Greek text of Esther contains a postscript as follows: In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite, and his son Ptolemy brought the present letter of Purim, saying that it was genuine and that Lysimachus, son of Ptolemy, of the community of Jerusalem, had translated it. The date referred to in this postscript is most probably 78-77 B.C., in the reign of Ptolemy XII and Cleopatra V.

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