Esther 1
The full text of Esther 1 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 This is what happened in the days of Ahasuerus—the Ahasuerus who reigned over 127 provinces from India to Cush.
2 In those days, when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa,
3 in the third year of his reign, he gave a feast for all his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media, the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him,
4 while he displayed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor of his great majesty for many days—180 days.
5 When those days were completed, the king gave a feast lasting seven days for all the people present in the citadel of Susa, from the greatest to the least, in the courtyard of the garden of the king's palace.
6 There were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple on silver rods and marble pillars, and couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and colored stones.
7 Drinks were served in golden vessels, each vessel different from the others, and the royal wine was abundant, as befitted the king's generosity.
8 The drinking was done according to the rule: no one was compelled, for the king had instructed every steward of his household to serve each man as he desired.
9 Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the royal palace of King Ahasuerus.
10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Karkas—the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus—
11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king wearing her royal crown, in order to display her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was lovely to look at.
12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. The king became furious, and his anger burned within him.
13 Then the king said to the wise men who understood the times—for this was the king's procedure toward all who understood law and judgment;
14 those closest to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memukan, the seven princes of Persia and Media who had access to the king's presence and held the highest positions in the kingdom—
15 "According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she did not obey the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs?"
16 Then Memukan said in the presence of the king and the officials, "Queen Vashti has not only wronged the king but also all the officials and all the peoples in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
17 For the queen's conduct will become known to all women, and they will look with contempt on their husbands, saying, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she did not come.'
18 This very day the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's behavior will say the same thing to all the king's officials, and there will be no end of contempt and anger.
19 If it pleases the king, let a royal decree go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of Persia and Media so that it cannot be revoked: that Vashti shall never again come before King Ahasuerus, and let the king give her royal position to another who is more worthy than she.
20 When the king's decree that he will issue is heard throughout his entire kingdom—vast as it is—all women will give honor to their husbands, from the greatest to the least."
21 This advice pleased the king and the officials, and the king did as Memukan proposed.
22 He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, that every man should be master in his own household and speak according to the language of his own people.
Translation notes (8)
- Esther 1:1a Ahasuerus renders the Hebrew 'Achashverosh, which represents the Old Persian name Khshayarsha, known in Greek as Xerxes. The king is Xerxes I, who reigned from 486 to 465 BC. The empire's twenty or so satrapies were subdivided into the smaller administrative provinces counted here.
- Esther 1:4a The 180 days—six months—likely describe an extended display of imperial wealth, perhaps a series of assemblies, rather than one continuous banquet; the seven-day feast of the next verse follows it. If Ahasuerus is Xerxes I, the third year of his reign (verse 3) coincides with his planning for the invasion of Greece recounted by Herodotus, when provincial officials would have gathered at court.
- Esther 1:6a Several material terms here occur nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible and their precise meanings are uncertain: karpas, 'cotton', is a Persian loanword, and the four stones of the pavement—bahat, shesh, dar, and socharet—are all rare or unique. The renderings 'porphyry', 'mother-of-pearl', and 'colored stones' therefore rest on ancient versions and conjecture rather than settled lexicography.
- Esther 1:8a Hebrew kaddat 'en 'ones, literally 'according to the law, none compelling'. The clause implies that Ahasuerus suspended the usual etiquette of the Persian court, in which guests were expected to drink whenever the king did; each guest was instead free to drink as much or as little as he wished. The word dat, 'law' or 'decree', is a Persian loanword characteristic of Esther.
- Esther 1:13a The phrase yode'ei ha'ittim (יֹדְעֵי הָעִתִּים), 'those who know the times', may designate astrologers who read the heavens, a class well attested at Persian courts, or more broadly counselors versed in precedent, as the parallel with 'law and judgment' suggests. The same idiom describes the men of Issachar in 1 Chronicles 12:32.
- Esther 1:19a The phrase translated "cannot be revoked" is Hebrew velo ya'avor, literally 'and it shall not pass away'. The convention that a law of Persia and Media, once written, was irrevocable appears also in Daniel 6:8, 12, and 15, and becomes central to this book's plot: in Esther 8:8 Haman's decree cannot be recalled, only countered by a second decree.
- Esther 1:20a The parenthetical 'vast as it is' renders ki rabbah hi, literally 'for it is vast', whose feminine pronoun agrees with malkhut, 'kingdom', rather than with the masculine pitgam, 'decree', a loanword of Persian origin. Some interpreters nonetheless attach the clause to the decree, taking it as a comment on the edict's sweeping scope rather than the empire's size.
- Esther 1:22a The verb sorer (שֹׂרֵר), 'to rule as a prince', rendered here as 'master', casts every husband as a petty sovereign, a satirical touch aimed at a king who could not govern his own queen. The closing clause about language is obscure in Hebrew; the Septuagint replaces it with a statement that every man might be feared in his own house.
About this translation
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