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 ¹  pretended ²  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ³ 

Isaiah 56:3

56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of ⁴  the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly ⁵  exclude me from his people.’

The eunuch should not say,

‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

Isaiah 56:6

56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of ⁶  the Lord and serve him,

who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to ⁷  my covenant –

Zechariah 2:11

2:11 “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on the day of salvation, ⁸  and they will also be my ⁹  people. Indeed, I will settle in the midst of you all.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

Zechariah 8:23

8:23 The Lord who rules over all says, ‘In those days ten people from all languages and nations will grasp hold of – indeed, grab – the robe of one Jew and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’” ¹⁰ 

¹ tn Heb “peoples of the land” (so NASB); NIV “people of other nationalities”; NRSV “peoples of the country.”

² 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.”

³ tn Heb “had fallen upon them” (so NRSV); NIV “had seized them.”

⁴ tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”

⁵ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

⁶ tn Heb “who attach themselves to.”

⁷ tn Heb “and take hold of”; NAB “hold to”; NIV, NRSV “hold fast.”

⁸ tn Heb “on that day.” The descriptive phrase “of salvation” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tc The LXX and Syriac have the 3rd person masculine singular suffix in both places (“his people” and “he will settle”; cf. NAB, TEV) in order to avoid the Lord’s speaking of himself in the third person. Such resort is unnecessary, however, in light of the common shifting of person in Hebrew narrative (cf. 3:2).

¹⁰ sn This scene of universal and overwhelming attraction of the nations to Israel’s God finds initial fulfillment in the establishment of the church (Acts 2:5-11) but ultimate completion in the messianic age (Isa 45:14, 24; 60:14; Zech 14:16-21).