Discovery BoxEsther 3:9 
Context3:9 If the king is so inclined, 1 let an edict be issued 2 to destroy them. I will pay ten thousand talents of silver 3 to be conveyed to the king’s treasuries for the officials who carry out this business.”
Esther 3:14-15
Context3:14 A copy of this edict was to be presented as law throughout every province; it was to be made known to all the inhabitants, 4 so that they would be prepared for this day. 3:15 The messengers 5 scurried forth 6 with the king’s order. 7 The edict was issued in Susa the citadel. While the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was in an uproar! 8
Esther 4:3
Context4:3 Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced 9 there was considerable 10 mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. 11 Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic 12 of many.
Esther 8:13-14
Context8:13 A copy of the edict was to be presented as law throughout each and every province and made known to all peoples, so that the Jews might be prepared on that 13 day to avenge themselves from their enemies.
8:14 The couriers who were riding the royal horses went forth with the king’s edict without delay. 14 And the law was presented in Susa the citadel as well.
1 tn Heb “If upon the king it is good”; KJV “If it please the king.”
2 tn Heb “let it be written” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “let it be decreed.”
3 sn The enormity of the monetary sum referred to here can be grasped by comparing this amount (10,000 talents of silver) to the annual income of the empire, which according to Herodotus (Histories 3.95) was 14,500 Euboic talents. In other words Haman is offering the king a bribe equal to two-thirds of the royal income. Doubtless this huge sum of money was to come (in large measure) from the anticipated confiscation of Jewish property and assets once the Jews had been destroyed. That such a large sum of money is mentioned may indicate something of the economic standing of the Jewish population in the empire of King Ahasuerus.
4 tn Heb “peoples” (so NASB, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “runners.” So also in 8:10, 14. Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “couriers.”
6 tn Or “went forth in haste” (so ASV).
7 tn Heb “with the word of the king.”
8 sn The city of Susa was in an uproar. This final statement of v. 15 is a sad commentary on the pathetic disregard of despots for the human misery and suffering that they sometimes inflict on those who are helpless to resist their power. Here, while common people braced for the reckless loss of life and property that was about to begin, the perpetrators went about their mundane activities as though nothing of importance was happening.
9 tn Heb “reached” (so NAB, NLT); KJV, NASB, NIV “came”; TEV “wherever the king’s proclamation was made known.”
10 tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the Jews went into deep mourning.”
11 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.
12 tn Heb “were spread to many”; KJV, NIV “many (+ people NLT) lay in sackcloth and ashes.”
13 tn Heb “this” (so NASB); most English versions read “that” here for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “making haste and hurrying”; KJV, ASV “being hastened and pressed.”
