Esther 10:24

And. Greek, "But every country or city throughout the kingdom, which shall not comply, shall be consumed with the spear and fire in wrath." --- Beasts. Greek adds hyperbolically, "and birds, and also be accounted most abominable for ever." (Haydock) --- Similar expressions occur in the prophets, to denote an entire destruction, Jeremias ix. 10., &c. Mardochai and Esther have left us in this work the most perfect example of virtue. The latter is given us a pattern of Christian sovereigns, and a figure of the Church. (St. Jerome ad Paulin. (Calmet) and prol. in Sophonias) --- Like Judith, she proved the salvation of her people, and the ruin of their adversaries. Nothing could be more striking, (Worthington) or visible, than the hand of God in these transactions. (Haydock) --- Esther was also a type of the blessed Virgin [Mary], by whose intercession the head of the serpent is crushed, and letters of grace succeed to the hand-writing that stood against us. (St. Thomas Aquinas, prol. in ep. Cath.) (Worthington)