Esther 4:10

4:10 Then Esther replied to Hathach with instructions for Mordecai:

Esther 4:17

4:17 So Mordecai set out to do everything that Esther had instructed him.

Esther 2:10

2:10 Now Esther had not disclosed her people or her lineage, ¹  for Mordecai had instructed her not to do so. ² 

Esther 4:5

4:5 So Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who had been placed at her service, ³  and instructed him to find out the cause and reason for Mordecai’s behavior. ⁴ 

Esther 2:20

2:20 Esther was still not divulging her lineage or her people, ⁵  just as Mordecai had instructed her. ⁶  Esther continued to do whatever Mordecai said, just as she had done when he was raising her.

Esther 3:2

3:2 As a result, ⁷  all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate were bowing and paying homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded. However, Mordecai did not bow, ⁸  nor did he pay him homage.

Esther 4:8

4:8 He also gave him a written copy of the law that had been disseminated ⁹  in Susa for their destruction so that he could show it to Esther and talk to her about it. He also gave instructions that she should go to the king to implore him and petition him on behalf of her people.

Esther 3:12

3:12 So the royal scribes ¹⁰  were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month. Everything Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps ¹¹  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.

Esther 8:9

8:9 The king’s scribes were quickly ¹²  summoned – in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. ¹³  They wrote out ¹⁴  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 ¹⁵  – 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.

[2:10]  ¹ tn Cf. v. 20, where the same phrase occurs but with the word order reversed.

[2:10]  ² tn Heb “that she not tell” (NRSV similar); NASB “that she should not make them known.”

[4:5]  ¹ tn Heb “whom he caused to stand before her”; NASB “whom the king had appointed to attend her.”

[4:5]  ² tn Heb “concerning Mordecai, to know what this was, and why this was.”

[2:20]  ¹ sn That Esther was able so effectively to conceal her Jewish heritage suggests that she was not consistently observing Jewish dietary and religious requirements. As C. A. Moore observes, “In order for Esther to have concealed her ethnic and religious identity…in the harem, she must have eaten…, dressed, and lived like a Persian rather than an observant Jewess” (Esther [AB], 28.) In this regard her public behavior stands in contrast to that of Daniel, for example.

[2:20]  ² tc The LXX adds the words “to fear God.”

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). Other modern English versions leave the conjunction untranslated here (NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

[3:2]  ² sn Mordecai did not bow. The reason for Mordecai’s refusal to bow before Haman is not clearly stated here. Certainly the Jews did not refuse to bow as a matter of principle, as though such an action somehow violated the second command of the Decalogue. Many biblical texts bear witness to their practice of falling prostrate before people of power and influence (e.g., 1 Sam 24:8; 2 Sam 14:4; 1 Kgs 1:16). Perhaps the issue here was that Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites, a people who had attacked Israel in an earlier age (see Exod 17:8-16; 1 Sam 15:17-20; Deut 25:17-19).

[4:8]  ¹ tn Heb “given” (so KJV); NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “issued”; NIV “published”; NAB “promulgated.”

[3:12]  ¹ tn Or “secretaries” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[3:12]  ² tn Or “princes” (so NLT); CEV “highest officials.”

[8:9]  ¹ tn Heb “in that time”; NIV “At once.”

[8:9]  ² sn Cf. 3:12. Two months and ten days have passed since Haman’s edict to wipe out the Jews.

[8:9]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “Cush” (so NIV), referring to the region of the upper Nile in Africa. Cf. KJV and most other English versions “Ethiopia.”