Discovery BoxEsther 8:9 
Context8:9 The king’s scribes were quickly 1 summoned – in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. 2 They wrote out 3 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 4 – 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.
Esther 8:11
Context8:11 The king thereby allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and to stand up for themselves – to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any army of whatever people or province that should become their adversaries, including their women and children, 5 and to confiscate their property.
1 tn Heb “in that time”; NIV “At once.”
2 sn Cf. 3:12. Two months and ten days have passed since Haman’s edict to wipe out the Jews.
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.
4 tn Heb “Cush” (so NIV), referring to the region of the upper Nile in Africa. Cf. KJV and most other English versions “Ethiopia.”
5 tn Heb “children and women.” As in 3:13, the translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.
