Esther 2:17

2:17 And the king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she met with his loving approval ¹  more than all the other young women. ²  So he placed the royal high turban on her head and appointed her queen ³  in place of Vashti.

Esther 3:6

3:6 But the thought of striking out against ⁴  Mordecai alone was repugnant to him, for he had been informed ⁵  of the identity of Mordecai’s people. ⁶  So Haman sought to destroy all the Jews (that is, the people of Mordecai) ⁷  who were in all the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Esther 8:1

The King Acts to Protect the Jews

8:1 On that same day King Ahasuerus gave the estate ⁸  of Haman, that adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther. Now Mordecai had come before the king, for Esther had revealed how he was related to her.

Esther 9:16

9:16 The rest of the Jews who were throughout the provinces of the king assembled in order to stand up for themselves and to have rest from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand ⁹  of their adversaries, but they did not confiscate their property.

[2:17]  ¹ tn Heb “grace and loyal love.” The expression is probably a hendiadys.

[2:17]  ² tc The LXX does not include the words “more than all the other young women.”

[2:17]  ³ tn Heb “caused her to rule.”

[3:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “to send a hand against”; KJV, NRSV “to lay hands on.”

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “they had related to him.” For stylistic reasons this has been translated as a passive construction.

[3:6]  ⁶ tc The entire first half of the verse is not included in the LXX.

[3:6]  ⁷ tc This parenthetical phrase is not included in the LXX. Some scholars emend the MT reading עַם (’am, “people”) to עִם (’im, “with”), arguing that the phrase is awkwardly placed and syntactically inappropriate. While there is some truth to their complaint, the MT makes sufficient sense to be acceptable here, and is followed by most English versions.

[8:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV; also in vv. 2, 7). Cf. TEV “all the property.”

[9:16]  ¹⁰ tc For this number much of the Greek MS tradition reads “fifteen thousand.” The Lucianic Greek recension reads “70,100.”