Esther 3:9

3:9 If the king is so inclined, ¹  let an edict be issued ²  to destroy them. I will pay ten thousand talents of silver ³  to be conveyed to the king’s treasuries for the officials who carry out this business.”

Esther 4:7

4:7 Then Mordecai related to him everything that had happened to him, even the specific amount of money that Haman had offered to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews to be destroyed.

Esther 4:14

4:14 “Don’t imagine that because you are part of the king’s household you will be the one Jew ⁴  who will escape. If you keep quiet at this time, liberation and protection for the Jews will appear ⁵  from another source, ⁶  while you and your father’s household perish. It may very well be ⁷  that you have achieved royal status ⁸  for such a time as this!”

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, ⁹  and to confiscate their property.

Esther 9:12

9:12 Then the king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman! What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? What is your request? It shall be given to you. What other petition do you have? It shall be done.”

¹ tn Heb “If upon the king it is good”; KJV “If it please the king.”

² tn Heb “let it be written” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “let it be decreed.”

³ 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.

⁴ tn Heb “from all the Jews”; KJV “more than all the Jews”; NIV “you alone of all the Jews.”

⁵ tn Heb “stand”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT “arise.”

⁶ tn Heb “place” (so KJV, NIV, NLT); NRSV “from another quarter.” This is probably an oblique reference to help coming from God. D. J. A. Clines disagrees; in his view a contrast between deliverance by Esther and deliverance by God is inappropriate (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther [NCBC], 302). But Clines’ suggestion that perhaps the reference is to deliverance by Jewish officials or by armed Jewish revolt is less attractive than seeing this veiled reference as part of the literary strategy of the book, which deliberately keeps God’s providential dealings entirely in the background.

⁷ tn Heb “And who knows whether” (so NASB). The question is one of hope, but free of presumption. Cf. Jonah 3:9.

⁸ tn Heb “have come to the kingdom”; NRSV “to royal dignity”; NIV “to royal position”; NLT “have been elevated to the palace.”

⁷ tn Heb “children and women.” As in 3:13, the translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.