3:8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a particular people 2 that is dispersed and spread among the inhabitants 3 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. 4 3:9 If the king is so inclined, 5 let an edict be issued 6 to destroy them. I will pay ten thousand talents of silver 7 to be conveyed to the king’s treasuries for the officials who carry out this business.”
7:3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have met with your approval, 8 O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition. 7:4 For we have been sold 9 – both I and my people – to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”
1 tn Aram “the treasury of kings.” The plural “kings” is Hebrew, not Aramaic. If the plural is intended in a numerical sense the reference is not just to Artaxerxes but to his successors as well. Some scholars understand this to be the plural of majesty, referring to Artaxerxes. See F. C. Fensham, Ezra and Nehemiah (NICOT), 74.
2 tn Heb “one people.” Note the subtle absence at this point of a specific mention of the Jewish people by name.
3 tn Heb “peoples” (so NASB, NIV); NAB “nations”
4 tn Heb “to cause them to rest”; NASB “to let them remain”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “to tolerate them.”
5 tn Heb “If upon the king it is good”; KJV “If it please the king.”
6 tn Heb “let it be written” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “let it be decreed.”
7 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.
8 tn Heb “If I have found grace in your eyes” (so also in 8:5); TEV “If it please Your Majesty.”
9 sn The passive verb (“have been sold”) is noncommittal and nonaccusatory with regard to the king’s role in the decision to annihilate the Jews.