Esther 1:19

1:19 If the king is so inclined, ¹  let a royal edict go forth from him, and let it be written in the laws of Persia and Media that cannot be repealed, ²  that Vashti ³  may not come into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and let the king convey her royalty to another ⁴  who is more deserving than she. ⁵ 

Esther 3:9

3:9 If the king is so inclined, ⁶  let an edict be issued ⁷  to destroy them. I will pay ten thousand talents of silver ⁸  to be conveyed to the king’s treasuries for the officials who carry out this business.”

Esther 5:8

5:8 If I have found favor in the king’s sight and if the king is inclined ⁹  to grant my request and perform my petition, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them. At that time ¹⁰  I will do as the king wishes. ¹¹ 

Esther 7:3

7:3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have met with your approval, ¹²  O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition.

Esther 7:9

7:9 Harbona, ¹³  one of the king’s eunuchs, said, “Indeed, there is the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke out in the king’s behalf. It stands near Haman’s home and is seventy-five feet ¹⁴  high.”

The king said, “Hang him on it!”

Esther 8:17

8:17 Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples ¹⁵  pretended ¹⁶  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ¹⁷ 

Esther 9:13

9:13 Esther replied, “If the king is so inclined, let the Jews who are in Susa be permitted to act tomorrow also according to today’s law, and let them hang the ten sons of Haman on the gallows.”

Esther 9:19

9:19 This is why the Jews who are in the rural country – those who live in rural cities – set aside the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a holiday for happiness, banqueting, holiday, and sending gifts to one another.

Esther 9:22

9:22 as the time when the Jews gave themselves rest from their enemies – the month when their trouble was turned to happiness and their mourning to a holiday. These were to be days of banqueting, happiness, sending gifts to one another, and providing for the poor.

¹ sn Heb “If upon the king it is good”; KJV “If it please the king.” Deferential language was common in ancient Near Eastern court language addressing a despot; it occurs often in Esther.

² sn Laws…that cannot be repealed. On the permanence of the laws of Media and Persia see also Esth 8:8 and Dan 6:8, 12, 15.

³ sn Previously in this chapter the word “queen” accompanies Vashti’s name (cf. vv. 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17). But here, in anticipation of her demotion, the title is dropped.

⁴ tn Heb “her neighbor”; NIV “someone else.”

⁵ tn Heb “who is better than she.” The reference is apparently to worthiness of the royal position as demonstrated by compliance with the king’s wishes, although the word טוֹב (tob, “good”) can also be used of physical beauty. Cf. NAB, NASB, NLT “more worthy than she.”

⁶ tn Heb “If upon the king it is good”; KJV “If it please the king.”

⁷ tn Heb “let it be written” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “let it be decreed.”

⁸ sn The enormity of the monetary sum referred to here can be grasped by comparing this amount (10,000 talents of silver) to the annual income of the empire, which according to Herodotus (Histories 3.95) was 14,500 Euboic talents. In other words Haman is offering the king a bribe equal to two-thirds of the royal income. Doubtless this huge sum of money was to come (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.

¹¹ tn Heb “if upon the king it is good.” Cf. the similar expression in v. 4, which also occurs in 7:3; 8:5; 9:13.

¹² tn Heb “and tomorrow” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “and then.”

¹³ tn Heb “I will do according to the word of the king,” i.e., answer the question that he has posed. Cf. NCV “Then I will answer your question about what I want.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “If I have found grace in your eyes” (so also in 8:5); TEV “If it please Your Majesty.”

²¹ sn Cf. 1:10, where Harbona is one of the seven eunuchs sent by the king to summon Queen Vashti to his banquet.

²² tn Heb “fifty cubits.” See the note on this expression in Esth 5:14.

²⁶ tn Heb “peoples of the land” (so NASB); NIV “people of other nationalities”; NRSV “peoples of the country.”

²⁷ tn Heb “were becoming Jews”; NAB “embraced Judaism.” However, 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 present translation understands the use of the word here (cf. NEB “professed themselves Jews”; NRSV “professed to be Jews”). This is the only occurrence of this verb in the Hebrew Bible, so there are no exact parallels. 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.”

²⁸ tn Heb “had fallen upon them” (so NRSV); NIV “had seized them.”