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Esther describes her obedience to Mordecai without explanation. The Greek Septuagint translation adds that Mordecai instructed her to fear God and obey his commands, suggesting that her continued obedience was based on Torah observance.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Esther 2:20
Hebrew Bible
18 Then the king prepared a large banquet for all his officials and his servants—it was actually Esther’s banquet. He also set aside a holiday for the provinces, and he provided for offerings at the king’s expense. 19 Now when the young women were being gathered again, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 20 Esther was still not divulging her lineage or her people, just as Mordecai had instructed her. Esther continued to do whatever Mordecai said, just as she had done when he was raising her. 21 In those days while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who protected the entrance, became angry and plotted to assassinate King Ahasuerus.
Date: 200–101 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Esther 2:20
Septuagint
17 And the king loved Esther, and she found favor beyond all the other virgins: and he put on her the queen's crown. 18 And the king made a banquet for all his friends and great men for seven days, and he highly celebrated the marriage of Esther; and he made a release to those who were under his dominion. 19 But Mordecai served in the palace. 20 Now Esther had not revealed her kindred; for so Mordecai commanded her, to fear God, and perform his commandments, as when she was with him: and Esther did not change her manner of life.
Date: 100–1 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The LXX translation of 2:20 includes the following short addition to the Masoretic text in Mordecai’s instructions to Esther, ‘to fear God and to keep his commands ... So Esther did not change her way of life’. This instruction runs parallel to Esther’s prayer in C 14–30 ..."
Emanuel Tov, The LXX Translation of Esther: A Paraphrastic Translation of MT or a Free Translation of a Rewritten Version? (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 507–526.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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