Esther 1:22

1:22 He sent letters throughout all the royal provinces, to each province according to its own script and to each people according to its own language, ¹  that every man should be ruling his family ²  and should be speaking the language of his own people. ³ 

Esther 2:3

2:3 And let the king appoint officers throughout all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the attractive young women to Susa the citadel, to the harem ⁴  under the authority of Hegai, the king’s eunuch who oversees the women, and let him provide whatever cosmetics they desire. ⁵ 

Esther 2:17

2:17 And the king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she met with his loving approval ⁶  more than all the other young women. ⁷  So he placed the royal high turban on her head and appointed her queen ⁸  in place of Vashti.

Esther 3:6

3:6 But the thought of striking out against ⁹  Mordecai alone was repugnant to him, for he had been informed ¹⁰  of the identity of Mordecai’s people. ¹¹  So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews (that is, the people of Mordecai) ¹²  who were in all the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Esther 3:8

3:8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a particular people ¹³  that is dispersed and spread among the inhabitants ¹⁴  throughout all the provinces of your kingdom whose laws differ from those of all other peoples. Furthermore, they do not observe the king’s laws. It is not appropriate for the king to provide a haven for them. ¹⁵ 

Esther 6:13

6:13 Haman then related to his wife Zeresh and to all his friends everything that had happened to him. These wise men, ¹⁶  along with his wife Zeresh, said to him, “If indeed this Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is Jewish, ¹⁷  you will not prevail against him. No, you will surely fall before him!”

Esther 8:11

8:11 The king thereby allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and to stand up for themselves – to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any army of whatever people or province that should become their adversaries, including their women and children, ¹⁸  and to confiscate their property.

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 ¹⁹  pretended ²⁰  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ²¹ 

Esther 9:2

9:2 The Jews assembled themselves in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to strike out against those who were seeking their harm. No one was able to stand before them, for dread of them fell on all the peoples.

Esther 9:27

9:27 Therefore, because of the account found in this letter and what they had faced in this regard and what had happened to them, the Jews established as binding on themselves, their descendants, and all who joined their company that they should observe these two days without fail, just as written and at the appropriate time on an annual basis.

¹ sn For purposes of diplomacy and governmental communication throughout the far-flung regions of the Persian empire the Aramaic language was normally used. Educated people throughout the kingdom could be expected to have competence in this language. But in the situation described in v. 22 a variety of local languages are to be used, and not just Aramaic, so as to make the king’s edict understandable to the largest possible number of people.

² tn Heb “in his house”; NIV “over his own household.”

³ tc The final prepositional phrase is not included in the LXX, and this shorter reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., NAB, NRSV, NLT). 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.

⁴ tn Heb “the house of the women” (so KJV, ASV). So also in vv. 9, 11, 13, and 14.

⁵ tn Heb “their ointments”; cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “beauty treatments.”

⁷ tn Heb “grace and loyal love.” The expression is probably a hendiadys.

⁸ tc The LXX does not include the words “more than all the other young women.”

⁹ tn Heb “caused her to rule.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “to send a hand against”; KJV, NRSV “to lay hands on.”

¹¹ tn Heb “they had related to him.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a passive construction.

¹² tc The entire first half of the verse is not included in the LXX.

¹³ tc This parenthetical phrase is not included in the LXX. Some scholars emend the MT reading עַם (’am, “people”) to עִם (’im, “with”), arguing that the phrase is awkwardly placed and syntactically inappropriate. While there is some truth to their complaint, the MT makes sufficient sense to be acceptable here, and is followed by most English versions.

¹³ tn Heb “one people.” Note the subtle absence at this point of a specific mention of the Jewish people by name.

¹⁴ tn Heb “peoples” (so NASB, NIV); NAB “nations”

¹⁵ tn Heb “to cause them to rest”; NASB “to let them remain”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “to tolerate them.”

¹⁶ tc Part of the Greek tradition and the Syriac Peshitta understand this word as “friends,” probably reading the Hebrew term רֲכָמָיו (rakhamayv, “his friends”) rather than the reading of the MT חֲכָמָיו (hakhamayv, “his wise men”). Cf. NLT “all his friends”; the two readings appear to be conflated by TEV as “those wise friends of his.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “from the seed of the Jews”; KJV, ASV similar.

¹⁹ tn Heb “children and women.” As in 3:13, the translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.

²² tn Heb “peoples of the land” (so NASB); NIV “people of other nationalities”; NRSV “peoples of the country.”

²³ 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.”

²⁴ tn Heb “had fallen upon them” (so NRSV); NIV “had seized them.”