2 Samuel 11:14-15

11:14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 11:15 In the letter he wrote: “Station Uriah in the thick of the battle and then withdraw from him so he will be cut down and killed.”

2 Samuel 11:2

11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. ¹  From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. ² 

2 Samuel 1:17

David’s Tribute to Saul and Jonathan

1:17 Then David chanted this lament over Saul and his son Jonathan.

Ezra 4:7-8

4:7 And during the reign ³  of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, ⁴  Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues ⁵  wrote to King Artaxerxes ⁶  of Persia. This letter ⁷  was first written in Aramaic but then translated.

[Aramaic:] ⁸ 

4:8 Rehum the commander ⁹  and Shimshai the scribe ¹⁰  wrote a letter concerning ¹¹  Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

Ezra 4:11

4:11 (This is a copy of the letter they sent to him:)

“To King Artaxerxes, ¹²  from your servants in ¹³  Trans-Euphrates:

Nehemiah 6:5

6:5 The fifth time that Sanballat sent his assistant to me in this way, he had an open letter in his hand.

Esther 3:12-15

3:12 So the royal scribes ¹⁴  were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month. Everything Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps ¹⁵  and governors who were in every province and to the officials of every people, province by province according to its script and people by people according to its language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king’s signet ring. 3:13 Letters were sent by the runners to all the king’s provinces stating that ¹⁶  they should destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews, from youth to elderly, both women and children, ¹⁷  on a particular day, namely the thirteenth day ¹⁸  of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar), and to loot and plunder their possessions. 3:14 A copy of this edict was to be presented as law throughout every province; it was to be made known to all the inhabitants, ¹⁹  so that they would be prepared for this day. 3:15 The messengers ²⁰  scurried forth ²¹  with the king’s order. ²²  The edict was issued in Susa the citadel. While the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was in an uproar! ²³ 

Esther 8:8-13

8:8 Now you write in the king’s name whatever in your opinion is appropriate concerning the Jews and seal it with the king’s signet ring. Any decree that is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be rescinded.

8:9 The king’s scribes were quickly ²⁴  summoned – in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. ²⁵  They wrote out ²⁶  everything that Mordecai instructed to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces all the way from India to Ethiopia ²⁷  – a hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all – to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews according to their own script and their own language. 8:10 Mordecai ²⁸  wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. He then sent letters by couriers on horses, who rode royal horses that were very swift.

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, ²⁹  and to confiscate their property. 8:12 This was to take place on a certain day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus – namely, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar). 8:13 A copy of the edict was to be presented as law throughout each and every province and made known to all peoples, so that the Jews might be prepared on that ³⁰  day to avenge themselves from their enemies.

[11:2]  ¹ tn Heb “on the roof of the house of the king.” So also in vv. 8, 9.

[11:2]  ² tn The disjunctive clause highlights this observation and builds the tension of the story.

[4:7]  ³ tn Heb “And in the days.”

[4:7]  ⁴ tn The LXX understands this word as a prepositional phrase (“in peace”) rather than as a proper name (“Bishlam”). Taken this way it would suggest that Mithredath was “in agreement with” the contents of Tabeel’s letter. Some scholars regard the word in the MT to be a corruption of either “in Jerusalem” (i.e., “in the matter of Jerusalem”) or “in the name of Jerusalem.” The translation adopted above follows the traditional understanding of the word as a name.

[4:7]  ⁵ tc The translation reads the plural with the Qere rather than the singular found in the MT Kethib.

[4:7]  ⁶ sn Artaxerxes I ruled in Persia from ca. 465–425 b.c.

[4:7]  ⁷ tc It is preferable to delete the MT’s וּכְתָב (ukhÿtav) here.

[4:7]  ⁸ sn The double reference in v. 7 to the Aramaic language is difficult. It would not make sense to say that the letter was written in Aramaic and then translated into Aramaic. Some interpreters understand the verse to mean that the letter was written in the Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language, but this does not seem to give sufficient attention to the participle “translated” at the end of the verse. The second reference to Aramaic in the verse is more probably a gloss that calls attention to the fact that the following verses retain the Aramaic language of the letter in its original linguistic form. A similar reference to Aramaic occurs in Dan 2:4b, where the language of that book shifts from Hebrew to Aramaic. Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12-26 are written in Aramaic, whereas the rest of the book is written in Hebrew.

[4:8]  ⁹ tn Aram “lord of the command.” So also in vv. 9, 17.

[4:8]  ¹⁰ sn Like Rehum, Shimshai was apparently a fairly high-ranking official charged with overseeing Persian interests in this part of the empire. His title was “scribe” or “secretary,” but in a more elevated political sense than that word sometimes has elsewhere. American governmental titles such as “Secretary of State” perhaps provide an analogy in that the word “secretary” can have a broad range of meaning.

[4:8]  ¹¹ tn Or perhaps “against.”

[4:11]  ¹² tn The Masoretic accents indicate that the phrase “to Artaxerxes the king” goes with what precedes and that the letter begins with the words “from your servants.” But it seems better to understand the letter to begin by identifying the addressee.

[4:11]  ¹³ tn Aram “men of.”

[3:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “secretaries” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[3:12]  ¹⁵ tn Or “princes” (so NLT); CEV “highest officials.”

[3:13]  ¹⁶ tn The words “stating that” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “children and women.” The translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.

[3:13]  ¹⁸ tc The LXX does not include the words “on the thirteenth day.”

[3:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “peoples” (so NASB, NRSV).

[3:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “runners.” So also in 8:10, 14. Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “couriers.”

[3:15]  ²¹ tn Or “went forth in haste” (so ASV).

[3:15]  ²² tn Heb “with the word of the king.”

[3:15]  ²³ sn The city of Susa was in an uproar. This final statement of v. 15 is a sad commentary on the pathetic disregard of despots for the human misery and suffering that they sometimes inflict on those who are helpless to resist their power. Here, while common people braced for the reckless loss of life and property that was about to begin, the perpetrators went about their mundane activities as though nothing of importance was happening.

[8:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in that time”; NIV “At once.”

[8:9]  ²⁵ sn Cf. 3:12. Two months and ten days have passed since Haman’s edict to wipe out the Jews.

[8:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “it was written”; this passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[8:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Cush” (so NIV), referring to the region of the upper Nile in Africa. Cf. KJV and most other English versions “Ethiopia.”

[8:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “He”; the referent (Mordecai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “children and women.” As in 3:13, the translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.

[8:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “this” (so NASB); most English versions read “that” here for stylistic reasons.