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God Made the Wasp and the Spider for the Day Esther Would Need Them

Every creature has a purpose baked in at creation that only becomes clear at the exact moment it is needed. The Purim story runs on exactly this principle.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Creatures King David Called Useless
  2. What the Creatures Were Created For
  3. Esther Stripped Off the Crown
  4. What Miracles the Creatures Performed
  5. Why the Scroll of Esther Does Not Say God's Name

The Creatures King David Called Useless

King David was watching a wasp eat a spider when a fool walked by and started beating them both with a stick. He looked at the three of them, the wasp that stings for no benefit, the spider that weaves webs no one wears, the fool who harms everything within reach, and he complained to God. Why create any of these? What purpose does a wasp serve? What does a spider's web accomplish?

God's answer, according to the Alphabet of Ben Sira (composed between 700 and 1000 CE), was short and definitive: the hour will come when you will need every one of them. David did not believe this. David was wrong.

The spider's web stretched across a cave entrance and saved his life when Saul's soldiers were searching for him. They saw the unbroken web and concluded no one had entered recently. The wasp built a nest in a hollow tree where David was hiding and its buzzing drove an enemy scout away. The fool distracted a hostile king at the moment when distraction was the only available defense. Every creature David had called pointless found its hour.

What the Creatures Were Created For

Esther's story runs on the same principle at a scale that shook the Persian Empire.

The Alphabet of Ben Sira is a satirical wisdom text, but its questions about creation are serious ones. Each dialogue between Nebuchadnezzar and the sage Ben Sira asks about a creature whose purpose seems absent and receives an answer that reaches back to the conditions of creation. Gnats were created for at least two reasons, Ben Sira tells the king. One is justice: a gnat would one day enter the nose of a tyrant who had it coming. The other is nurture: ravens feed their young by catching gnats in the first days of life, before the young birds are strong enough to hunt for themselves.

Every creature is positioned at the intersection of multiple purposes, none of which is obvious at the creature's creation, all of which will become clear when the moment arrives that required the creature's existence.

Esther Stripped Off the Crown

In the month before she went to Ahasuerus unsummoned, Esther understood what she was walking into. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle compiled by Jerahmeel ben Solomon, she stripped off her royal garments entirely. She put on sackcloth. She covered her head with ashes. She fell on her face and stayed there, calling herself an orphan in a foreign palace, begging for mercy from one window to the other.

The strength she brought to the throne room was not composed. It was what remained after everything composed had been emptied out. She was asking God to send every instrument available to her rescue, including the ones she did not know existed.

What Miracles the Creatures Performed

The Purim miracle in the Ginzberg account is not only the survival of the Jewish people. It is the elevation of Esther in Persian eyes to a level that could not have been achieved by political maneuvering alone. She had entered the throne room and the king had extended his golden scepter. But the tradition preserves details about what happened in the specific moments of the banquets, the wine, the decision Haman brought against himself by walking into every trap that was laid, none of which Esther or Mordecai had manufactured.

Ben Sira's fable about the horse and death addresses a question Nebuchadnezzar posed about mortality and justice: why do some creatures survive encounters that should destroy them? The horse in the fable refuses to carry the king of death and pays a price for it. No creature can negotiate the terms of its creation. The terms were set before the creature existed. The wasp did not choose to be useful to David. The gnat did not choose to be the instrument of a tyrant's end. They were built for their moments and the moments arrived.

Why the Scroll of Esther Does Not Say God's Name

The Book of Esther is the only book in the Hebrew Bible that does not contain God's name. This is not an accident or an oversight. The tradition reads it as the shape of the miracle: God worked through every instrument of the natural world, through the creatures built for their purposes at creation, through Esther's beauty and Mordecai's stubbornness and Haman's pride and the king's sleepless night and the timing of the decree and the reversal, without ever appearing directly. The miracle was woven entirely from the fabric of the world. Every thread had been placed there at creation for exactly this pattern.

EstherCreationCreaturesMiraclesPurim
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From the tradition

Sources

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Alphabet of Ben Sira 35Alphabet of Ben Sira

King David once watched a wasp devouring a spider while a fool chased them both with a stick. And he complained to God about it. Why create wasps that sting for no benefit? Why create spiders that weave webs they'll never wear? Why create fools who harm everything they touch? Three utterly pointless creatures, David argued. God's response, according to the Alphabet of Ben Sira (c. 700-1000 CE), was sharp: "David, you are slandering My creatures. The hour will come when you will need every one of them."

That's exactly what happened. Three times, the very creatures David mocked saved his life.

First, the spider. When David hid in a cave from King Saul, God sent a spider to weave a web across the cave's entrance. Saul arrived, saw the unbroken web, and assumed no one could have entered. He moved on. David survived. When he emerged and saw the spider, he kissed her and blessed her Creator. (For another telling of this story, see David Learns to Respect Spiders After God Saves Him.)

Second, the fool. When David stood before King Achish of the Philistines, he pretended to be a raving madman. Since Achish's own daughter was mentally ill, the king was disgusted: "Do I not have enough fools already?" They released David, and he escaped with his life.

Third, the wasp. When David crept past Saul's sleeping general Avner to steal the king's water flask, Avner's legs pinned him like pillars on the way out. David cried out in desperation. God sent a hornet that stung Avner's legs, causing him to shift. David slipped free. The lesson? Never slander God's creation. Everything has its purpose, even if you can't see it yet.

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Alphabet of Ben Sira 34Alphabet of Ben Sira

Gnats live for a single day. They're born, they swarm, they die. New ones replace them. So why do they exist at all? Nebuchadnezzar wanted to know, and Ben Sira had a two-part answer that stretches from Roman history to the nesting habits of ravens.

In Alphabet of Ben Sira, composed between 700 and 1000 CE, gnats were created for two reasons. The first is about justice. One day, a single gnat would bring down the wicked Titus - the Roman emperor who destroyed the Temple in 70 CE. Jewish tradition holds that a gnat entered Titus's brain through his nostril and tormented him for years until it killed him. An entire species exists, in part, because of one future act of divine retribution.

The second reason is gentler. When baby ravens hatch from their eggs, they're pale and featherless - so unlike adult ravens that their own parents don't recognize them. The parent birds flee the nest, leaving the chicks to cry out in hunger. As it says in (Psalms 147:9), God provides "to the raven's brood what they cry for." And what does God send? Gnats. The tiny insects swarm near the helpless chicks, who eat them and survive for three days. After three days, the chicks' feathers darken, their parents recognize them, and they return.

Here again is the Alphabet's recurring theological argument: God prepares the cure before the harm. The gnat, worthless in human eyes, is the mechanism by which both justice and mercy operate in the world.

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Chronicles of Jerahmeel LXXXChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Esther stripped off her royal garments and the ornaments of her majesty. According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, she clothed herself in sackcloth, disheveled her hair, covered her head with dust and ashes, and fell on her face in prayer. She called herself an orphan in a foreign palace, begging God's mercy "from one window to the other" in the house of Ahasuerus.

Her prayer recalled the entire history of Israel's deliverance. Her father had taught her how God redeemed the ancestors from Egypt, slew the firstborn, parted the sea, provided food from heaven and water from the rock. She invoked Moses's promise that even in the land of their enemies, God would never forsake His people. Then she made her request: "Stand at the right hand of this orphan. Grant me mercy in the presence of the king, for I fear him as a kid fears the lion. Cause his heart to hate our enemies and to love Thy servants, for the heart of kings is in Thy hand."

On the third day, Esther dressed in royal garments and walked into the throne room, leaning on one handmaiden while another carried her train so the gold and precious stones would not touch the ground. The courtiers whispered among themselves, already dividing her belongings. "This woman is sure to be killed," they said. "I will take her garments." "I shall take the ornaments on her feet."

Ahasuerus looked up, enraged that she had come without being summoned. Esther trembled and began to faint. But God intervened, adding beauty to her beauty and majesty to her majesty. The king leapt from his throne, ran to her, embraced her, and placed the golden scepter in her hand. Through Esther and Mordecai, God brought about the salvation of Israel. Haman and his sons were hanged on the gallows, and every person who had plotted against the Jews was put to the sword.

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Legends of the Jews 12:6Legends of the Jews

Legends of the Jews turns to Esther's Miracle.

The miracle of Purim isn’t just about escaping the evil decree of Haman, may his name be blotted out. It’s also about the incredible elevation of the Jewish people in the eyes of the Persian Empire, and particularly the ascent of Esther herself. this young woman, secretly Jewish, becomes queen!

That's where the seemingly excessive, almost unbelievable, feast that King Ahasuerus throws for his kingdom comes into play. It's not just a random detail in the Book of Esther, is it? It’s absolutely crucial.

The sheer, over-the-top extravagance of this feast – imagine, a celebration that lasts for 180 days, followed by another week-long party for everyone in the capital city of Shushan! – it serves as a measuring stick. As a gauge. (Esther 1:4-5)

Why?

Because it shows us the immense wealth and power that Esther would later wield. The Book of Esther makes it clear the king was very, very rich. This wasn't just a party; it was a display of imperial might. The more lavish the feast, the more impressive Esther's rise to power becomes. The Zohar, that foundational text of Jewish mysticism, hints at the deeper, hidden meanings within the story, and the feast certainly fits that bill, doesn't it?

The more we understand the opulence surrounding her, the more we appreciate the magnitude of her transformation. She wasn’t just saving her people; she was stepping into a position of unparalleled influence within one of the greatest empires of the ancient world.

So, the next time you read the story of Esther, don't just skim over the details of the feast. Imagine the spectacle, the grandeur, the sheer excess of it all. It's not just background noise; it’s a vital piece of the puzzle, setting the stage for Esther’s extraordinary journey. It reminds us that sometimes, the most miraculous transformations come from the most unexpected places.

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Alphabet of Ben Sira 30Alphabet of Ben Sira

Nebuchadnezzar wants to kill Ben Sira. He's just not very subtle about it. "I have a friend I hate," the king says, barely disguising his intentions, "and I want to kill him with food he doesn't know about. Tell me how, and I'll pay you silver and gold."

Ben Sira sees through it instantly. And he responds with a fable.

There was once a beautiful horse belonging to Nimrod, the ancient king. The other horses came to him with a proposal: "Give us your head to cut off, and we'll fill your stable with straw and barley." The horse, being intelligent, saw the trap. "Fools," he said. "If you cut off my head, who exactly is going to eat the straw?"

Ben Sira's point to Nebuchadnezzar is razor-sharp. If you kill me, who will collect your reward? The king swears an oath not to harm him.

So Ben Sira plays a dangerous game. He tells the king that egg yolks eaten without salt for ten days will kill a person. Nebuchadnezzar tests it on someone. It works. Then he orders Ben Sira to eat the same thing. The boy agrees. But secretly adds salt to his portion. When the king tries to replicate Ben Sira's "recipe" and gets sick, the boy heals him with an amulet. When the king's son falls ill next, Ben Sira writes a more elaborate amulet invoking the names of healing angels, describing their forms, wings, and limbs.

According to the Alphabet of Ben Sira, composed between 700 and 1000 CE, the boy summarizes the moral with an ancient proverb: "Evil comes from evil people. Act first to kill someone who's trying to kill you." It's a story about survival by wit, where a seven-year-old Jewish child outmaneuvers the most powerful king on earth, not through strength, but through stories, science, and knowing when to add salt.

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Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 418Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

King David once asked God what good there was in gnats, spiders and fools. One day, fleeing from Saul, he hid in a cave and a spider quickly covered the opening with its web. Saul, seeing it, said that no one could have entered the cave without tearing the web, and so David escaped. On another occasion, he entered a cave where Saul and Abner were sleeping. Creeping under Abner’s gigantic legs in order to reach the cruise of water, David was suddenly caught by Abner when he stretched his legs. A gnat came and stung Abner, who lifted his leg and David escaped. On going to the king of the Philistines David simulated a fool in order to save his life. Thus he was taught to recognise the wonders of God in His creation.

419 (42). Two men lived in close friendship. War separated them. One day one of them went to his friend's town. The king, believing him to be a spy coming from the enemy’s country, ordered him to be killed. He begged to be allowed to return home to settle his affairs after which he would return. Asked who would stand surety for him, his friend offered himself to be killed if the other did not return within the fixed time. The king granted a month. On the last day the man had not returned and his friend was brought out from prison and was on the point of being killed when the other man returned. The king, greatly astounded, begged of them to allow him to become a third in their friendship.

420 (41). At a certain place there were people worshipping fire. They used to light one stake in the morning and one stake in the evening, keeping the fire alive continually. When

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they grew old, they threw themselves into a flaming pit, the gate of Gehinom, believing thereby that they were absolved from their sins and carried straight to Paradise. A Jew one day came thither and left his purse with an old man. When he returned the man had thrown himself into the fire. The people told him to wait, for such men returned on the third day and settled their property; and so it happened. The old man re -appeared, settled his affairs and gave him back his purse. The Jew wanted to follow him but on the way the old man told him that he was a demon who had induced the people to worship and had acted in such manner to increase their belief and lead them astray. But he, being a Jew, could not be allowed to follow when he worshipped the true God.

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