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Mordecai: from ‘mourning’ to
‘glory’
The most striking example is Mordecai. In the fourth chapter,
after Haman has promulgated his law to exterminate the Jews, Mordecai
tears his robe and appears )cy
(ja'tsa), in sackcloth and ashes. Now, tearing robes and mourning
in sackcloth and ashes is common use to the Jews.
[4] But, what is striking in this case is that Mordecai goes to the
king’s gate in mourning. This is a very dangerous action, since no one
is allowed to come to the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth (4:2). Mordecai
probably wants to inform Esther, but why does he resort to such a risky
act? Why doesn’t he simply tell her, as he did in an earlier scene when
he discovered a conspiracy against the king? At that time he easily made
contact with Esther to give her the information. Thereupon she spoke to
the king in Mordecai’s name (2:21-23).
Here in chapter 4 however, the situation has become quite different. This
time Esther will no longer have a simple function as the bearer of a message,
she will play a much more important role. For that role Mordecai is going
to prepare her carefully, step by step. The first step is to silently
show her his mourning. His torn robe, the sackcloth and the ashes speak
their own language, a strong language.
It works. When Esther’s maids inform her about
Mordecai’s silent demonstration, she is deeply dismayed. She is trembling
heavily: d)om: lxal:xat:t@wa
(wattitchalchal me’od). The Hebrew
word used here is a special form (hitpalpel) of the verb lwx
(chul), and means something like ‘whirling in severe pain or anguish’;
it is often linked with labour pains. The queen is terribly shocked as
she shows with her ‘body language’. Yet, just like Mordecai, she doesn’t
speak. She doesn’t even ask the reason of her uncle’s mourning. She answers
simply by sending him appropriate clothes. These have to convey her message:
‘Take off your sackcloth!’ Mordecai’s answer is again silent: he refuses
to accept the clothes. His reply is clear: ‘The clothes are not the problem’.
Then, finally, Esther seems to get the message. She orders her
servant to ask what’s going on. Only now Esther starts to speak, initially
through the mediation of her servant, afterwards more directly. From this
moment onwards she becomes more and more involved in the great disaster
that threatens the Jews.
Mordecai, in refusing
to take off his sackcloth, conveys a very strong message. Later on, at
the end of the story, when everything has turned out all right, Mordecai
appears once more; here again the verb )cy
is used. This time too, his outfit is appropriate to the situation, but
one that is totally different from previously. Here he is dressed in blue
and white, instead of sackcloth. He wears a great golden crown and a mantle
of fine linen and purple (8:15). Although this mantle is not explicitly
a ‘royal robe’, Mordecai looks like the king himself. And, what’s more,
the whole city of Susa is shouting with joy.
What is the reason for this great joy? In the preceding verses
the elimination of Haman, the archenemy of the Jews, has been achieved,
thanks to Mordecai. This is the reason why the whole city – not only the
Jewish population! – is cheering him. In a way he receives the
honour that Haman wanted so badly for himself, as became clear in chapter
6, where Haman had to advise the king ‘what to do for the man whom the
king wishes to honour’. Under the impression that he was the one
who ‘the king wishes to honour’, Haman described his own dream: to wear
a robe ‘the king himself has worn before’. Ironically enough, this royal
robe was put on the shoulders of Mordecai, his rival. And Haman was the
one who had to perform this homage.
This is the only instance that talks about clothing in relation to Haman.
This is all the more remarkable since it concerns the kind of clothing
that Haman desires, but will never have. It will be for Mordecai,
his great adversary. The scene characterises the sharp contrast between
the two protagonists, a contrast that is reconfirmed by Mordecai’s royal
dress when he comes out after Haman’s death in 8:15.
[5]
Haman: from ‘glory’ to ‘mourning’
Haman himself does not receive any garments in the story.
At his first presentation, when his seat is set above all the officials
who are with him and everyone is ordered to bow down to him (3:1-2), there
is no talk of any clothing. Yet, he receives an important insignia of
authority, namely at the moment he has made plans to destroy the Jews.
At that occasion the king hands over to him his signet ring, which means
that Haman may constitute every law he wishes (3:10). This ring has an
important function in the plot. After Haman’s execution the ring is given
to Mordecai (8:2), so that now he can promulgate the law. This
ring stands for great power.
Still, there is another remarkable sort of dress connected to Haman. In
the above-mentioned scene, chapter 6, he had to proclaim Mordecai’s honour,
which was deeply degrading for him. After that incident he hurries to
his house in mourning and with his head covered. This ‘mourning’ is reminiscent
of Mordecai’s act in chapter 4 where he was in mourning after Haman
threatened the Jews to death. Here Haman is the one who is mourning, which
accentuates the changing of roles between the two rivals. The text does
not provide any details about Haman’s head
covering, but the signal is clear: Haman has lost face. This feature returns
at the end of his career, when Esther reveals Haman’s evil intentions.
The king, in addition, thinks that he is assaulting the queen (7:8), whereupon
the eunuchs cover Haman’s face as a sign that he has lost face for ever.
King Ahasuerus and Queen Vashti
It is surprising that we don’t hear anything about the
royal garments of king Ahasuerus himself. Nothing is said about his robe,
nor about his crown. The only object mentioned is his signet ring, the
symbol of his reign. Surprisingly it is exactly this symbol of royal power
that he gives away! First to Haman, later to Mordecai. Yet, there is talk
about some sumptuous and luxurious fabrics. However, these cloths do not
dress the king, but they decorate the exotic marquee in the garden
of the palace (1:6). They serve as a background for the famous party with
which the king displays the great wealth of his kingdom and the splendour
and glory of his majesty. One can wonder why the text doesn’t mention
whether the king wore some of these splendid cloths himself!
Another person of whom we do not know much about her clothing is Queen
Vashti. We only meet her in the background of the aforementioned party
at the beginning of the book. On the last day, when ‘the heart of the
king is merry with wine’ (1:10), he orders an unforgettable finale for
the impressive show. The festivities will not be rounded off with magnificent
fireworks but with a show of the most peculiar and intimate of all his
treasures: his own wife, the queen. Seven chamberlains, all mentioned
by name, are sent to Vashti. The text is unambiguous concerning
the intention of the message: the queen
has ‘to show her beauty’ to the peoples and the princes (1:11). The parallel
with foregoing verses, where the king showed his riches and greatness
in order to increase his fame and prestige, is evident. With the same
intention he wants to show off the beauty of his queen now. By doing so
his image will rise to a zenith.
There is a touch of irony in this situation: the monarch expects
to increase his own prestige by exhibiting the beauty of Vashti. [6] One can question the state of
a king who presumes to derive his fame from the beauty of his wife. Whose
fame is at stake?
The Crown of the Kingship
It is not without significance that Vashti has
to wear ‘the crown of the kingship’, tw%kl;ma
rteke (kætær malkut).
This is not just a fine ornament; it is the symbol of her royal dignity.
Nevertheless it is peculiar that the king himself apparently doesn’t have
a crown. Only the queen has one.
Other details concerning Vashti’s clothing are not mentioned. For that
reason the Rabbis suppose [7] that she was naked otherwise – after all, she had to show off
her beauty! With her royal crown she has to appear ‘at the face of the
king’, K7lem@eha yn'p;li
(lifnej hammælækh). This scene has all the signs of becoming a
revealing spectacle. The repeated usage of the verb h)r
(ra’ah), ‘to see’, is telling:
she will be seen!
But, the ‘striptease’ will not take place,
because Vashti refuses to come. This is really shocking: a wife who doesn’t
obey her husband! The king is completely wrong footed. What can he do?
The king’s sages ‘who knew the laws’ advise him to dismiss Vashti. ‘Her
kingship must be given to another woman, better than she’ (1:19). The
counsellors do not mention the rteke
(kætær), the crown with which Vashti should have come, but they
do talk about the tw%kl;ma
(malkut), the kingship. This is what has to be given to another
queen, as they say. The rteke
(kætær) and the tw%kl;ma
(malkut) are strongly linked to each other, as becomes clear
in a following scene where the new queen is introduced.
Although the king has appointed commissioners in all the provinces
to gather all the young virgins into his harem, it proves to be
not so easy to find a new queen. Each girl will have to go through a cosmetic
treatment of twelve months, six months with oil of myrrh and six months
with perfumes and massage. [8] However, there is no talk of clothing. Every
night one girl is taken to the king; in the evening she comes, in the
morning she goes. She doesn’t come for a second time, unless the king
has remembered her name and asks for her.
Four years after Vashti’s dismissal, in the
seventh year of Ahasuerus’ reign, it is Esther’s turn to come to the king’s bedroom. Then, finally, he can make a choice: he falls
in love with Esther. Of all the virgins she wins his favour and
devotion. He grants her the royal status by placing the crown upon her
head and making her ‘queen instead of Vashti’ (2:17). The ‘crown
of the kingship’, tw%kl;ma
rteke
(kætær malkut), with which Vashti had been ordered to come, is now given to Esther. What
will be the result? Vashti was called, but didn’t come; Esther will not
be called, but she will come, as we shall see.
Queen Esther: dressed with her Kingship
Yet, the story presents another clothing object connected
to Esther’s status: she has a ‘royal robe’! Let us take a look at the
most crucial scene of the story: Esther’s famous entering to the king
to plead for her people (5:1-5). After Haman’s promulgation of the law
to destroy the Jews, Esther decides to save her people. As part of her
strategy, she invites the king and Haman to a couple of banquets.
At the first one she prepares her action, at the second she puts her plans
into effect. [9]
The first problem to be solved is conveying the dinner-invitation to the
king. This turns out to be a very difficult part of her enterprise, for
it is impossible to enter into the king’s territory without being called.
Approaching the king without invitation would mean an affront to his authority
and this would mean her death.
Esther
decides to take the risk, she will go. The way in which she prepares herself
for the action is striking: she does not eat nor drink for three days and three nights. In addition she orders
the whole Jewish community to do the same on her behalf; even her maidens
have to fast. And then, on the third day – often a crucial day in biblical
narratives – she goes into the inner court of the palace. This means entering
within the range of the royal power, an act that flies in the face of
all rules! Impressively, the text describes how the king is sitting on
the throne of his kingship, in the house of his kingship (5:1). He is
depicted in the complete dignity of his kingship: wOtw%kl;ma (malkuto).
Esther for her part looks impressive as well; she has her own dignity.
She has dressed herself in a royal robe; that is to say, the majority
of the English translations say so. The Hebrew text, however, gives more
specific information: ‘she put on the kingship’, tw%kl;ma
#$b@al:t@iwaa
(wattilbash malkut). There she is, Esther,
opposite the king, invested with her own authority: a queen. The repeated
xkanO
(nokach), ‘opposite of’, underlines the confrontational nature
of the encounter of the two royal authorities. Will they find each other
in harmony, or will the king repudiate her as he did Vashti at the time?
Everything depends on the reaction of Ahasuerus.
Yet, Esther obtains ‘favour’ in the eyes of the king (5:2a). This
determines her fate. The king holds out the golden sceptre in his hand,
a ceremonial sign of grace which Esther answers with an appropriate gesture:
she approaches and touches the top of the sceptre (5:2). So she shows
herself to be the real queen.
Esther
is the most important character
in the book that bears her name. She is the only one in the story who
is ‘dressed with the kingship’. And she knows how to make use of it.
The Royal Crown on the head of the horse
Finally, there is one intriguing issue left: ‘the royal
crown on the head of the horse’, a highly unusual picture found in the
aforementioned scene about Haman’s fantasy of wearing the king’s royal
mantle and sitting on his horse (6:8). The message is clear: Haman doesn’t
simply want to be honoured, he wishes to be the king himself, as the formulation
of his desire shows: ‘Let a royal robe be brought, which the king himself
has worn’. Just a royal robe is not good enough, probably, the king himself
must have worn it before. The same goes for the horse, ‘a horse that the
king himself has ridden’. But what about ‘the royal crown’ on the head
of the horse? In my opinion the royal crown on the head of the horse has to be seen within
the context of Haman’s desire to be the king
for one day: to wear his personal clothes, to ride his personal horse.
But... ‘the royal crown’ on the horse’s head?
What is the precise function of this ornament?
Pictures from the ancient Middle East show that decorations
on the heads of royal horses were very common. [10] Yet, the curious formulation
of Haman’s desire raises the suggestion that he does not mean just some sort of decoration, but the special head-dress of the queen herself,
the ‘crown of the kingship’. This
is the special object with which Vashti was summoned to show herself at
the party of Ahasuerus (1:11) and it was, later on, put on the head of
Esther, the new queen. In both cases this unique
crown is the symbol of the queen’s royal dignity, her identifying mark.
This ‘crown of the kingship’, tw%kl;ma rteke
(kætær malkut), is mentioned nowhere else but in the book of Esther. It is the queen’s
crown on the head of Vashti, on the head of Esther and on the head
of the horse. We have to notice that Mordecai’s great golden crown (8:15)
is specified with a more common Hebrew word: tre+e(J
(catæræt).
The fact that Haman wishes the queen’s crown on the
head of the horse on which he will ride creates the impression that Haman
in his fantasy is not so much thinking of a royal horse from the court-stables,
but rather of having the queen for one night...!
We may assume that Ahasuerus suspected this as well, given his extremely
distrustful reaction when he finds Haman on his knees before the bed (sic!)
on which Esther is lying. He accuses Haman of assaulting the queen in
the king’s own house (7:8). It is striking that this accusation, rather
than his hatred of the Jews, results in Haman’s final execution.
And what about Esther? In an earlier scene (4:11) she told Mordecai that
she was out of favour with the king, she had not been with him for thirty
days. Haman’s fantasy, however, seems to have raised the envy of the king,
because from that moment onwards he is very generous to Esther and gives
her all she wants. Unlike Vashti, Esther succeeds in keeping the ‘crown
of her kingship’. For, on the crucial moment (5:1), she dressed herself
‘with the kingship’! The author of the book of Esther made a proper use
of the symbolic function of clothing to give a clear message about the
characters in the story.
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Dr. Jopie Siebert-Hommes
is a researcher in Women Studies Theology and Old Testament exegesis.
She worked as a lecturer at the University of Utrecht and at the
University of Amsterdam. Now she has retired, but she still gives
guest lectures and writes articles on feminist exegesis.
Some of her publications:
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