Esther 6:5

6:5 The king’s attendants said to him, “It is Haman who is standing in the courtyard.” The king said, “Let him enter.”

Esther 8:4

8:4 When the king extended to Esther the gold scepter, she ¹  arose and stood before the king.

Esther 4:5

4:5 So Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who had been placed at her service, ²  and instructed him to find out the cause and reason for Mordecai’s behavior. ³ 

Esther 3:4

3:4 And after they had spoken to him day after day ⁴  without his paying any attention to them, they informed Haman to see whether this attitude on Mordecai’s part would be permitted. ⁵  Furthermore, he had disclosed to them that he was a Jew. ⁶ 

Esther 4:14

4:14 “Don’t imagine that because you are part of the king’s household you will be the one Jew ⁷  who will escape. If you keep quiet at this time, liberation and protection for the Jews will appear ⁸  from another source, ⁹  while you and your father’s household perish. It may very well be ¹⁰  that you have achieved royal status ¹¹  for such a time as this!”

Esther 5:1-2

Esther Appeals to the King for Help

5:1 It so happened that on the third day Esther put on her royal attire and stood in the inner court of the palace, ¹²  opposite the king’s quarters. ¹³  The king was sitting on his royal throne in the palace, opposite the entrance. ¹⁴  5:2 When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she met with his approval. ¹⁵  The king extended to Esther the gold scepter that was in his hand, and Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter.

Esther 7:7

7:7 In rage the king arose from the banquet of wine and withdrew to the palace garden. Meanwhile, Haman stood to beg Queen Esther for his life, ¹⁶  for he realized that the king had now determined a catastrophic end for him. ¹⁷ 

Esther 7:9

7:9 Harbona, ¹⁸  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 ¹⁹  high.”

The king said, “Hang him on it!”

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, ²⁰  and to confiscate their property.

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 9:16

9:16 The rest of the Jews who were throughout the provinces of the king assembled in order to stand up for themselves and to have rest from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand ²¹  of their adversaries, but they did not confiscate their property.

¹ tn Heb “Esther.” The pronoun (“she”) was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name is redundant here in terms of contemporary English style.

¹ tn Heb “whom he caused to stand before her”; NASB “whom the king had appointed to attend her.”

² tn Heb “concerning Mordecai, to know what this was, and why this was.”

¹ sn Mordecai’s position in the service of the king brought him into regular contact with these royal officials. Because of this association the officials would have found ample opportunity to complain of Mordecai’s refusal to honor Haman by bowing down before him.

² tn Heb “Will the matters of Mordecai stand?”; NASB “to see whether Mordecai’s reason would stand.”

³ sn This disclosure of Jewish identity is a reversal of the practice mentioned in 1:10, 20.

¹ tn Heb “from all the Jews”; KJV “more than all the Jews”; NIV “you alone of all the Jews.”

² tn Heb “stand”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT “arise.”

³ 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.

⁴ tn Heb “And who knows whether” (so NASB). The question is one of hope, but free of presumption. Cf. Jonah 3:9.

⁵ tn Heb “have come to the kingdom”; NRSV “to royal dignity”; NIV “to royal position”; NLT “have been elevated to the palace.”

¹ tn Heb “of the house of the king”; NASB, NRSV “of the king’s palace.”

² tn Heb “the house of the king”; NASB “the king’s rooms”; NIV, NLT “the king’s hall.” This expression 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.

³ tn Heb “the entrance of the house” (so ASV).

¹ tn Heb “she obtained grace in his eyes”; NASB “she obtained favor in his sight”; NIV “he was pleased with her”; NLT “he welcomed her.”

¹ sn There is great irony here in that the man who set out to destroy all the Jews now finds himself begging for his own life from a Jew.

² tn Heb “for he saw that calamity was determined for him from the king”; NAB “the king had decided on his doom”; NRSV “the king had determined to destroy him.”

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

² tn Heb “fifty cubits.” See the note on this expression in Esth 5:14.

¹ tn Heb “children and women.” As in 3:13, the translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.

¹ tc For this number much of the Greek MS tradition reads “fifteen thousand.” The Lucianic Greek recension reads “70,100.”