Esther 1:13

1:13 The king then inquired of the wise men who were discerners of the times – for it was the royal custom to confer with all those who were proficient in laws and legalities. ¹ 

Esther 4:13

4:13 he ²  said to take back this answer to Esther:

Esther 5:3

5:3 The king said to her, “What is on your mind, ³  Queen Esther? What is your request? Even as much as half the kingdom will be given to you!”

Esther 5:5-6

5:5 The king replied, “Find Haman quickly so that we can do as Esther requests.”

So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared. 5:6 While at the banquet of wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your request? It shall be given to you. What is your petition? Ask for as much as half the kingdom, ⁴  and it shall be done!”

Esther 6:1

The Turning Point: The King Honors Mordecai

6:1 Throughout that night the king was unable to sleep, ⁵  so he asked for the book containing the historical records ⁶  to be brought. As the records ⁷  were being read in the king’s presence,

Esther 6:3

6:3 The king asked, “What great honor ⁸  was bestowed on Mordecai because of this?” The king’s attendants who served him responded, “Not a thing was done for him.”

[1:13]  ¹ tn Heb “judgment” (so KJV); NASB, NIV “justice”; NRSV “custom.”

[4:13]  ² tn Heb “Mordecai.” The pronoun (“he”) was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name here is redundant in terms of contemporary English style.

[5:3]  ³ tn Heb “What to you?”; NAB, NIV NRSV “What is it, Queen Esther?”

[5:6]  ⁴ sn As much as half the kingdom. Such a statement would no doubt have been understood for the exaggeration that it clearly was. Cf. the similar NT scene recorded in Mark 6:23, where Herod makes a similar promise to the daughter of Herodias. In that case the request was for the head of John the Baptist, which is a lot less than half the kingdom.

[6:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the sleep of the king fled.” In place of the rather innocuous comment of the Hebrew text, the LXX reads here, “And the Lord removed the sleep from the king.” The Greek text thus understands the statement in a more overtly theological way than does the Hebrew text, although even in the Hebrew text there may be a hint of God’s providence at work in this matter. After all, this event is crucial to the later reversal of Haman’s plot to destroy the Jewish people, and a sympathetic reader is likely to look beyond the apparent coincidence.

[6:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the book of the remembrances of the accounts of the days”; NAB “the chronicle of notable events.”

[6:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the records) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “honor and greatness.” The expression is a hendiadys (see the note on 5:10 for an explanation of this figure).