1 sn (1:1) In the English Bible Esther appears adjacent to Ezra-Nehemiah with the historical books, but in the Hebrew Bible it is one of five short books (the so-called Megillot) that appear toward the end of the biblical writings. The canonicity of the book was questioned by some in ancient Judaism and early Christianity. It is one of five OT books that were at one time regarded as antilegomena (i.e., books "spoken against"). The problem with Esther was the absence of any direct mention of God. Some questioned whether a book that did not mention God could be considered sacred scripture. Attempts to resolve this by discovering the tetragrammaton (YHWH) encoded in the Hebrew text (e.g., in the initial letters of four consecutive words in the Hebrew text of Esth 5:4) are unconvincing, although they do illustrate how keenly the problem was felt by some. Although no copy of Esther was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, this does not necessarily mean that the Qumran community did not regard it as canonical. More recently, Martin Luther questioned the canonicity of this book. Although the book does not directly mention God, it would be difficult to read it without sensing the providence of God working in powerful, though at times subtle, ways to rescue his people from danger and possible extermination.
2tn (1:1) Where the Hebrew text has "Ahasuerus," the LXX has "Artaxerxes." The ruler mentioned in the Hebrew text is Xerxes I (ca. 486-465 B.C.).
3tn (1:1) Heb "Cush," referring to the region of the upper Nile in Africa.
4sn (1:2) The city of Susa served as one of several capitals of Persia during this time; the other locations were Ecbatana, Babylon, and Persepolis. Partly due to the extreme heat of its summers, Susa was a place where Persian kings stayed mainly in the winter months.
5tc (1:3) Due to the large numbers of people implied, some scholars suggest that the original text may have been "leaders of the army." However, there is no textual evidence for this emendation, and the large numbers are not necessarily improbable.
6sn (1:3) Unlike the Book of Daniel, the usual order for this expression in Esther is "Persia and Media." In Daniel the order is "Media and Persia," indicating a time in their history when Media was in the ascendancy.
7sn (1:3) The size of the banquet described here, the number of its invited guests, and the length of its duration, although certainly immense by any standard, are not without precedent in the ancient world. Moore documents a Persian banquet for 15,000 people and an Assyrian celebration with 69,574 guests (see C. A. Moore, Esther [AB7B], 6).
8tn (1:4) Heb "many days."
9tc (1:5) The LXX adds tou gamou ("of the wedding feast").
10tc (1:5) The LXX has hex ("six") instead of "seven."
11tn (1:5) Heb "were found."
12tn (1:5) Heb "from the great and unto the small."
13sn (1:6) The finest linen was byssus, a fine, costly, white fabric made in Egypt, Palestine and Edom, and imported into Persia (BDB 101; HALOT 115-16).
14tn (1:6) The Hebrew noun hFm mitta refers to a reclining couch spread with covers, cloth and pillow for feasting and carousing (Ezek 23:41; Amos 3:12; 6:4; Esth 1:6; 7:8). See BDB 641; HALOT 573.
15tn (1:7) Heb "to cause to drink" (Hiphil infinitive construct of saqah). As the etymology of the word for "banquet" (misteh) hints, drinking was a prominent feature of ancient Near Eastern banquets.
16tn (1:8) Heb "the drinking was according to law; there was no one compelling."
17tn (1:8) Heb "every chief of his house."
18tn (1:10) Heb "as the heart of the king was good with the wine." Here the proper name (King Ahasuerus) has been substituted for the title in the translation for stylistic reasons.
19tn (1:10) Heb "King Ahasuerus"; here the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun "him" in the translation for stylistic reasons.
20sn (1:12) Refusal to obey the king was risky even for a queen in the ancient world. It is not clear why Vashti behaved so rashly and put herself in such danger. There is no justification in the biblical text for an ancient Jewish targumic tradition that the king told her to appear before his guests dressed in nothing but her royal high-turban, that is, essentially naked.
21tn (1:13) Heb "judgment."
22tn (1:14) Heb "seers of the face of the king."
23tn (1:14) Heb "were sitting first."
24tc (1:15) The location of the prepositional phrase "according to law" is a bit unusual in the Hebrew text, but not so much so as to require emendation. Some scholars suggest deleting the phrase as an instance of dittography from the final part of the immediately preceding word in v. 14. Others suggest taking the phrase with the end of v. 14 rather than with v. 15. Both proposals, however, lack adequate justification.
25sn (1:19) Deferential language was common in ancient Near Eastern court language addressing a despot; it occurs often in Esther.
26sn (1:19) Laws...that cannot be repealed. On the permanence of the laws of Media and Persia see also Esth 8:8 and Dan 6:8.
27tn (1:19) Heb "her neighbor."
28tc (1:20) The phrase "vast though it is" is not included in the LXX.
29tc (1:22) The final prepositional phrase is not included in the LXX. Some scholars suggest the phrase may be the result of dittography from the earlier phrase "to each people according to its language," but this is not a necessary conclusion. The edict was apparently intended to reassert male prerogative with regard to two things (and not just one): sovereign and unquestioned leadership within the family unit, and the right of deciding which language was to be used in the home when a bilingual situation existed.
1tn (2:1) Heb "after these things." The expression is very vague from a temporal standpoint, not indicating precisely just how much time might have elapsed. Cf. v. 21.
2sn (2:1) There may be a tinge of regret expressed in the king's remembrance of Vashti. There is perhaps a hint that he wished for her presence once again, although that was not feasible from a practical standpoint. The suggestions by the king's attendants concerning a replacement seem to be an effort to overcome this nostalgia.
3tn (2:2) Heb "virgin young women, good of form." The same phrase also occurs in v. 3.
4tn (2:3) Heb "the house of the women." So also in vv. 9, 11, 13, and 14.
5tn (2:3) Heb "their ointments."
6tn (2:4) Heb "the matter was good in the eyes of the king."
7sn (2:5) The name Mordecai is a pagan name that reflects the name of the Babylonian deity Marduk.
8sn (2:6) Jeconiah is an alternative name for Jehoiachin.
9tn (2:7) According to HALOT 64 the term /m@a) II ('omen) means: (1) "attendant" of children (Num 11:12; Isa 49:23); (2) "guardian" (2 Kgs 10:1,5; Est 2:7); (3) "nurse-maid" (2 Sam 4:4; Ruth 4:16); and (4) "to look after" (Isa 60:4; Lam 4:5). Older lexicons did not distinguish this root from the homonym /m^a* I ('aman, "to support; to confirm"; cf. BDB 52). This is reflected in a number of translations by use of a phrase like "brought up" (KJV, ASV, RSV, NIV) or "bringing up" (NASB).
10sn (2:7) Hadassah is a Jewish name that probably means "myrtle"; the name Esther probably derives from the Persian word for "star." Esther is not the only biblical character for whom two different names were used. Daniel (renamed Belteshazzar) and his three friends Hananiah (renamed Shadrach), Mishael (renamed Meshach), and Azariah (renamed Abednego) were also given different names by their captors.
11tn (2:7) Heb "beautiful of form." The Hebrew noun rat (to'ar, "form; shape") is used elsewhere to describe the physical bodily shape of a beautiful woman (Gen 29:17; Deut 21:11; 1 Sam 25:3); see BDB 1061.
12tn (2:7) Heb "had taken her to him." The Hebrew verb jql (laqah, "to take") describes Mordecai adopting Esther and treating her like his own daughter: "to take as one's own property" as a daughter (HALOT 534 [6]).
13tn (2:11) Heb "the peace of Esther."
14tc (2:12) The LXX does not include the words "that were required for the women."
tn (2:12) Heb "to be to her according to the law of women."
15tc (2:14) The LXX does not include the words "was pleased with her."
16tn (2:15) Heb "who had taken her to him as a daughter."
17tc (2:16) The Greek MSS Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus read "twelfth" here.
18tc (2:16) The Syriac Peshitta reads "fourth" here.
19tn (2:17) Heb "grace and loyal love." The expression is probably a hendiadys.
20tc (2:17) The LXX does not include the words "more than all the other young women."
21tn (2:17) Heb "caused her to rule."
22tc (2:18) The LXX does not include the words "and he provided for offerings at the king's expense."
23tc (2:19) The LXX does not include the words "Now when the young women were being gathered again." The Hebrew word shenit ("a second time") is difficult in v. 19, but apparently it refers to a subsequent regathering of the women to the harem.
24sn (2:19) That Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate means that he was a high-ranking government official. It was at the city gate where important business was transacted. Being in this position afforded Mordecai an opportunity to become aware of the plot against the king's life, although the author does not include the particular details of how this information first came to Mordecai's attention.
25sn (2:20) That Esther was able so effectively to conceal her Jewish heritage suggests that she was not consistently observing Jewish dietary and religious requirements. As Moore observes, "In order for Esther to have concealed her ethnic and religious identity...in the harem, she must have eaten..., dressed, and lived like a Persian rather than an observant Jewess." (So C. A. Moore, Esther [AB7B], 28.) In this regard her public behavior stands in contrast to that of Daniel, for example.
26tc (2:20) The LXX adds the words "to fear God."
27tn (2:21) This individual is referred to as "Bigthana," a variant spelling of the name, in Esth 6:2.
28tc (2:21) The LXX does not include the names "Bigthan and Teresh" here.
29tn (2:21) Heb "send a hand against."
30sn (2:22) The text of Esther does not disclose exactly how Mordecai learned about the plot against the king's life. Ancient Jewish traditions state that Mordecai overheard conspiratorial conversation, or that an informant brought this information to him, or that it came to him as a result of divine prompting. These are all without adequate support from the biblical text. The author simply does not tell the source of Mordecai's insight into this momentous event.
31tc (2:22) The LXX simply reads "Esther" and does not include "the queen."
32tc (2:22) The LXX adds here "the things concerning the plot."
tn (2:22) Heb "in the name of Mordecai."
33tn (2:23) Heb "they both were hanged." The referent (the two eunuchs who conspired against the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
34tn (2:23) Or "on a pole."
1tn (3:1) Heb "after these things."
2sn (3:2) Mordecai did not bow. The reason for Mordecai's refusal to bow before Haman is not clearly stated. Certainly the Jews did not refuse to bow as a matter of principle; many biblical texts bear witness to their practice of falling prostrate before people of power and influence. Perhaps the issue here was that Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites, a people who had attacked Israel in an earlier age (see Exod 17:8-16).
3tn (3:5) Heb "Haman." The pronoun ("he") was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name would appear redundant here in terms of contemporary English style.
4tn (3:6) Heb "to send a hand against."
5tc (3:6) The entire first half of the verse is not included in the LXX.
6tc (3:6) This parenthetical phrase is not included in the LXX.
7tc (3:7) The LXX adds the following words: "in order to destroy in one day the race of Mordecai, and the lot fell on the fourteenth day of the month."
tn (3:7) Heb "from day to day and month to month."
8tn (3:8) Heb "to cause them to rest."
9sn (3:9) This huge sum of money was to come, no doubt (in large measure), from the anticipated confiscation of Jewish property and assets once the Jews had been destroyed. That such a large sum of money is mentioned may indicate something of the economic standing of the Jewish population in the empire of King Ahasuerus.
10tn (3:11) Heb "the silver is given to you."
11tc (3:13) The LXX does not include the words "on the thirteenth day."
12sn (3:15) The city of Susa was in an uproar. This final statement of v. 15 is a sad commentary on the pathetic disregard of despots for the human misery and suffering that they sometimes inflict on those who are helpless to resist their power. Here, while common people braced for the reckless loss of life and property that was about to begin, its perpetrators went about their mundane activities as though nothing of importance was happening.
1tn (4:1) Heb "Mordecai." The pronoun ("he") was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name would appear redundant here in terms of contemporary English style.
2tn (4:1) Heb "great."
3tn (4:3) Heb "were spread to."
4tn (4:4) The words "about these things" are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in translation for the sake of clarity.
5tn (4:5) Heb "caused to stand before her."
6tn (4:5) Heb "to know what this was, and why this was."
7tn (4:8) Heb "given."
8tn (4:11) Heb "one is his law."
9tn (4:11) Heb "and he will live."
10tn (4:13) Heb "Mordecai." The pronoun ("he") was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name would appear redundant here in terms of contemporary English style.
11tn (4:14) Heb "stand."
12tn (4:14) Heb "place." This is probably an oblique reference to help coming from God.
13tn (4:14) Heb "And who knows whether."
14tn (4:14) Heb "have come to the kingdom."
15tn (4:16) Heb "which is not according to law."
1tn (5:1) The expression "the house of the king" is used twice in this verse. In the first instance, it is apparently the larger palace complex that is in view, whereas in the second instance the expression seems to refer specifically to the quarters from which the king governed.
2tn (5:2) Heb "she found grace in his eyes."
3sn (5:6) As much as half the kingdom. Such a statement would no doubt have been understood for the exaggeration that it clearly was. Cf. the similar NT scene recorded in Mark 6:23.
4tn (5:8) Heb "and tomorrow."
5tn (5:8) Heb "I will do according to the word of the king," i.e., answer the question that he has posed.
6tn (5:9) Heb "happy and good of heart."
7tn (5:9) Heb "tremble from before him."
8tn (5:11) Heb "the glory of his riches."
9tn (5:12) Heb "caused to come."
10tn (5:14) Heb "his"; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for stylistic reasons.
11tn (5:14) Heb "fifty cubits." Assuming a standard length for the cubit of about 18 inches (45 cm), this would be about seventy-five feet (22.5 meters), which is a surprisingly tall height for the gallows. Perhaps the number assumes the gallows was built on a natural hill for visual effect.
1tn (6:1) Heb "and the sleep of the king fled." In place of the rather innocuous comment of the Hebrew text, the LXX reads here, "And the Lord removed the sleep from the king." The Greek text thus understands the statement in a more overtly theological way than does the Hebrew text, although even in the Hebrew text there may be a hint of God's providence at work in this matter. After all, this event is crucial to the later reversal of Haman's plot to destroy the Jews, and a sympathetic reader is likely to look beyond the apparent coincidence.
2tn (6:1) Heb "the book of the remembrances of the accounts of the days."
3tn (6:1) Heb "they"; the referent (the records) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4tn (6:2) This individual is referred to as "Bigthan," a variant spelling of the name, in Esth 2:21.
5tn (6:2) Heb "to send a hand against."
6tn (6:3) Heb "honor and greatness." The expression is a hendiadys.
7tn (6:6) Heb "said in his heart."
8tc (6:8) The final comment ("one on whose head the royal crown has been") is not included in the LXX.
9tc (6:9) The translation reads with the LXX wehilbiso ("and he will clothe him") rather than the reading of the MT, wehilbisu ("and they will clothe"). Likewise, the later verbs in this verse ("cause him to ride" and "call") are better taken as singulars rather than plurals.
10tn (6:10) Heb "let fall."
11tc (6:13) Part of the Greek tradition and the Syriac Peshitta understand this word as "friends," probably reading the Hebrew term rahamayw ("his friends") rather than the reading of the MT, hakamayw ("his wise men").
1tn (7:1) Heb "to drink."
2tc (7:5) The second occurrence of the Hebrew verb wayyo'mer ("and he said") in the MT should probably be deleted. The repetition is unnecessary in the context and may be the result of dittography in the MT.
3tn (7:5) Heb "has so filled his heart."
4sn (7:7) There is great irony here in that the man who set out to destroy all the Jews now begs for his own life from a Jew.
5tn (7:8) Heb "falling."
6tn (7:8) Heb "where Esther was." The term "lying" is added in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7tn (7:9) Heb "fifty cubits." See the note on this expression in Esth 5:14.
1tn (8:1) Heb "house" (also in vv. 2, 7).
2tn (8:4) Heb "Esther." The pronoun ("she") was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name would appear redundant here in terms of contemporary English style.
3tc (8:5) The LXX does not include the expression "the Agagite."
4tn (8:6) Heb "my kindred."
5tn (8:7) Heb "sent forth his hand." Cf. 9:2.
6tn (8:9) Heb "in that time."
7tn (8:9) Heb "Cush," referring to the region of the upper Nile in Africa.
8tn (8:10) Heb "He"; the referent (Mordecai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9tn (8:14) Heb "making haste and hurrying."
10tn (8:15) Heb "shouted and rejoiced." The expression is a hendiadys.
11tn (8:16) Heb "light and gladness and joy and honor." The translation understands the four terms to be a double hendiadys.
12tn (8:17) Heb "were becoming Jews." But the Hitpael stem of the verb is sometimes used of a feigning action rather than a genuine one (see, e.g., 2 Sam 13:5, 6), which is the way the translation understands the use of the word here (cf. NEB "professed themselves Jews"). This is the only occurrence of this verb in the Hebrew Bible, so there are no exact parallels to examine. However, in the context of v. 17 the motivation of their conversion (Heb "the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them") should not be overlooked. The LXX apparently understood the conversion described here to be genuine, since it adds the words "they were being circumcised and" before "they became Jews."
13tn (8:17) Heb "had fallen upon them."
1tn (9:4) Heb "great."
2tc (9:16) For this number much of the Greek MS tradition reads "fifteen thousand." The Lucianic Greek recension reads "70,100."
3tn (9:25) Heb "he"; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
4tn (9:25) Heb "his"; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5tc (9:29) The LXX and the Syriac Peshitta omit the word "second."
6tc (9:30) The translation reads the Niphal form wayyissalah ("were sent") rather than the reading of the MT, wayyislah (Qal, "and he sent"). The subject of the MT verb would have to be Mordecai, but this is problematic in light of v. 29, where both Esther and Mordecai are responsible for the letters.
7tn (9:30) Heb "peace and truth." The expression is probably a hendiadys.
1tn (10:3) Heb "great."
2tn (10:3) Heb "brothers."
3tn (10:3) Heb "he was seeking."
4tn (10:3) Heb "he was speaking peace to."
5sn (10:3) A number of additions to the Book of Esther appear in the apocryphal, or deuterocanonical, writings. These additions supply further information about various scenes described in the canonical book and are interesting in their own right. However, they were never a part of the Hebrew Bible.