Esther 7:3-4

7:3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have met with your approval, ¹  O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition. 7:4 For we have been sold ²  – both I and my people – to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”

Esther 8:6

8:6 For how can I watch the calamity that will befall my people, and how can I watch the destruction of my relatives?” ³ 

Nehemiah 2:3-5

2:3 I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors ⁴  lies desolate and its gates destroyed ⁵  by fire?” 2:4 The king responded, ⁶  “What is it you are seeking?” Then I quickly prayed to the God of heaven 2:5 and said to the king, “If the king is so inclined ⁷  and if your servant has found favor in your sight, dispatch me to Judah, to the city with the graves of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.”

Proverbs 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart ⁸  is in the hand ⁹  of the Lord like channels of water; ¹⁰ 

he turns it wherever he wants.

[7:3]  ¹ tn Heb “If I have found grace in your eyes” (so also in 8:5); TEV “If it please Your Majesty.”

[7:4]  ² sn The passive verb (“have been sold”) is noncommittal and nonaccusatory with regard to the king’s role in the decision to annihilate the Jews.

[8:6]  ³ tn Heb “my kindred” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “my race”; NIV “my family”; NLT “my people and my family.”

[2:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 5).

[2:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “devoured” or “eaten” (so also in Neh 2:13).

[2:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “said to me.”

[2:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “If upon the king it is good.” So also in v. 7.

[21:1]  ⁸ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

[21:1]  ⁹ sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

[21:1]  ¹⁰ tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”