Esther 4:16

4:16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I ¹  will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. ²  If I perish, I perish!”

Jonah 3:7

3:7 He issued a proclamation and said, ³  “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water.

[4:16]  ¹ tn Heb “I and my female attendants.” The translation reverses the order for stylistic reasons.

[4:16]  ² tn Heb “which is not according to the law” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “contrary to the law.”

[3:7]  ³ tn Contrary to many modern English versions, the present translation understands the king’s proclamation to begin after the phrase “and he said” (rather than after “in Nineveh”), as do quotations in 1:14; 2:2, 4; 4:2, 8, 9. In Jonah where the quotation does not begin immediately after “said” (אָמַר, ’amar), it is only the speaker or addressee or both that come between “said” and the start of the quotation (1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 4:4, 9, 10; cf. 1:1; 3:1).