Esther 4:1-3

Esther Decides to Risk Everything in order to Help Her People

4:1 Now when Mordecai became aware of all that had been done, he ¹  tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the city, crying out in a loud ²  and bitter voice. 4:2 But he went no further than the king’s gate, for no one was permitted to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. 4:3 Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced ³  there was considerable ⁴  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ⁵  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ⁶  of many.

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 ⁷  will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. ⁸  If I perish, I perish!”

Psalms 30:5-11

30:5 For his anger lasts only a brief moment,

and his good favor restores one’s life. ⁹ 

One may experience sorrow during the night,

but joy arrives in the morning. ¹⁰ 

30:6 In my self-confidence I said,

“I will never be upended.” ¹¹ 

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure. ¹² 

Then you rejected me ¹³  and I was terrified.

30:8 To you, O Lord, I cried out;

I begged the Lord for mercy: ¹⁴ 

30:9 “What ¹⁵  profit is there in taking my life, ¹⁶ 

in my descending into the Pit? ¹⁷ 

Can the dust of the grave ¹⁸  praise you?

Can it declare your loyalty? ¹⁹ 

30:10 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me!

O Lord, deliver me!” ²⁰ 

30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. ²¹ 

[4:1]  ¹ 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.

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “great.”

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “reached” (so NAB, NLT); KJV, NASB, NIV “came”; TEV “wherever the king’s proclamation was made known.”

[4:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the Jews went into deep mourning.”

[4:3]  ⁵ sn Although prayer is not specifically mentioned here, it is highly unlikely that appeals to God for help were not a part of this reaction to devastating news. As elsewhere in the book of Esther, the writer seems deliberately to keep religious actions in the background.

[4:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “were spread to many”; KJV, NIV “many (+ people NLT) lay in sackcloth and ashes.”

[4:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “I and my female attendants.” The translation reverses the order for stylistic reasons.

[4:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “which is not according to the law” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “contrary to the law.”

[30:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “for [there is] a moment in his anger, [but] life in his favor.” Because of the parallelism with “moment,” some understand חַיִּים (khayyim) in a quantitative sense: “lifetime” (cf. NIV, NRSV). However, the immediate context, which emphasizes deliverance from death (see v. 3), suggests that חַיִּים has a qualitative sense: “physical life” or even “prosperous life” (cf. NEB “in his favour there is life”).

[30:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the evening weeping comes to lodge, but at morning a shout of joy.” “Weeping” is personified here as a traveler who lodges with one temporarily.

[30:6]  ¹¹ sn In my self-confidence I said… Here the psalmist begins to fill in the background of the crisis referred to in the earlier verses. He had been arrogant and self-confident, so the Lord withdrew his protection and allowed trouble to invade his life (vv. 8-11).

[30:7]  ¹² tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

[30:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

[30:8]  ¹⁴ tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 8 are probably preterites; the psalmist recalls that he prayed in his time of crisis.

[30:9]  ¹⁵ sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.

[30:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.

[30:9]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).

[30:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:9]  ¹⁹ tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”

[30:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “be a helper to me.”

[30:11]  ²¹ sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.