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 9:13
Context9:13 Esther replied, “If the king is so inclined, let the Jews who are in Susa be permitted to act tomorrow also according to today’s law, and let them hang the ten sons of Haman on the gallows.”
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.
