Esther 8
The full text of Esther 8 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told the king what he was to her.
2 The king took off his signet ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
3 Then Esther spoke again to the king. She fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to avert the evil plan of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had devised against the Jews.
4 The king held out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther rose and stood before the king.
5 She said, "If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the matter seems right before the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king.
6 For how can I bear to see the disaster that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?"
7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the pole because he intended to lay hands on the Jews.
8 But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king's ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring cannot be revoked."
9 The king's scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. An edict was written according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the provinces from India to Cush—127 provinces—to every province in its own script and to every people in their own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language.
10 He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king's ring. He sent the letters by mounted couriers riding on swift horses bred from the royal stud.
11 In them the king granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and defend their lives, to destroy, kill, and annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them—children and women included—and to plunder their goods,
12 on one day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.
13 A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies.
14 The couriers, mounted on swift horses used in the king's service, rode out in urgent haste by order of the king. The decree was also issued in the citadel of Susa.
15 Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal robes of blue and white, with a great golden crown and a robe of fine linen and purple, and the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.
16 The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor.
17 In every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the land declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.
Translation notes (5)
- Esther 8:8a Because a law issued in the king's name and sealed with his ring could not be revoked (compare Esther 1:19 and Daniel 6:8), Haman's decree remained legally in force. The king therefore authorizes a counter-edict empowering the Jews to defend themselves rather than an annulment of the original order.
- Esther 8:9a This is the longest verse in the Hebrew Bible. Hodu, 'India', denotes the Indus River valley at the empire's eastern edge, while Kush refers to the Nile region south of Egypt, so the 127 provinces span the full breadth of Persian rule. The word for satraps, achashdarpanim, is a loanword from Old Persian khshathrapavan, 'protector of the realm'.
- Esther 8:11a Hebrew taf venashim, 'children and women', is syntactically ambiguous: it may name the Jews' dependents whom attackers threaten, as rendered here, or the attackers' own families as objects of 'destroy, kill, and annihilate'. The clause deliberately echoes Haman's decree in Esther 3:13, where the same phrase marks the intended victims, which many interpreters take as decisive for the defensive reading.
- Esther 8:15a The Hebrew tekhelet vachur, 'blue and white', names the colors of the Persian court, which also adorn the palace hangings in Esther 1:6. Mordecai's investiture thus marks his elevation with the insignia of Persian royalty itself, reversing his earlier appearance in sackcloth at the same gate (Esther 4:1-2).
- Esther 8:17a The verb mityahadim (מִתְיַהֲדִים), 'declared themselves Jews', occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Formed from the name Yehudi, 'Jew', its reflexive stem can denote either genuine conversion or the public profession of Jewish identity; the stated motive of fear leaves the depth of the change deliberately ambiguous. The Septuagint renders it as circumcision and conversion.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own translation of Scripture, made directly from the original Hebrew. Completed in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation available, and it is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Reading the TBV here on the web is free — the full study edition, with original-language tools and translator’s notes, lives in the Trinity Bible app.
Continue: Esther 9 → · All of Esther · About the TBV · Read Esther 8 in the KJV
Get the app: iOS · Android · Trinity Plus