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Esther

About this book
Chapter 6

1 Throughout that night the king was unable to sleep,⁠ so he asked for the book containing the historical records to be brought. As the records were being read in the king’s presence, 2 it was found written that Mordecai had disclosed that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had plotted to assassinate King Ahasuerus. 3 The king asked, “What great honor was bestowed on Mordecai because of this?” The king’s attendants who served him responded, “Not a thing was done for him.” 4 Then the king said, “Who is that in the courtyard?” Now Haman had come to the outer courtyard of the palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had constructed for him. 5 The king’s attendants said to him, “It is Haman who is standing in the courtyard.” The king said, “Let him enter.” 6 So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” Haman thought to himself, “Who is it that the king would want to honor more than me?” 7 So Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king wishes to honor, 8 let them bring royal attire which the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden—one bearing the royal insignia. 9 Then let this clothing and this horse be given to one of the king’s noble officials. Let him then clothe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him lead him about through the plaza of the city on the horse, calling before him, ‘So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!’” 10 The king then said to Haman, “Go quickly! Take the clothing and the horse, just as you have described, and do as you just indicated to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Don’t neglect a single thing of all that you have said.” 11 So Haman took the clothing and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai. He led him about on the horse throughout the plaza of the city, calling before him, “So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!”⁠ 12 Then Mordecai again sat at the king’s gate, while Haman hurried away to his home, mournful and with a veil over his head. 13 Haman then related to his wife Zeresh and to all his friends everything that had happened to him. These wise men, along with his wife Zeresh, said to him, “If indeed this Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is Jewish, you will not prevail against him.⁠ No, you will surely fall before him!” 14 While they were still speaking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived. They quickly brought Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Texts in conversation

Compare Esther 6:1 and LXX Esther 6:1

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Hebrew version of Esther never mentions God and says only that the king could not sleep on the pivotal night. The Greek Septuagint translation changes this so God prevents the king’s sleep, giving God an active role in the story.

Passages

Esther 6:1

Hebrew Bible
1 Throughout that night the king was unable to sleep, so he asked for the book containing the historical records to be brought. As the records were being read in the king’s presence, 2 it was found written that Mordecai had disclosed that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had plotted to assassinate King Ahasuerus.
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Esther

LXX Esther 6:1

Septuagint
1 But the Lord removed sleep from the king that night: and he told his teacher to bring in the books, the registers of daily events, to read to him. 2 And he found the records written concerning Mordecai, how he had told the king concerning the two chamberlains of the king, when they were keeping guard, and sought to lay hands on Artaxerxes.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Esther

References

… The translator of Esther misrepresented נֳָדָּה as נִּדֵּד ה or נֹדֵד ה, that is, “the Lord removed sleep” (from the king). He thus took the he as an abbreviated tetragrammaton (compare p. 160), while vocalizing נדד as a piʿel form (נדד occurs in this conjugation only in rabbinic and not in biblical Hebrew). However, it is very relevant to note that the name of God does not occur in the biblical book of Esther, which makes the existence of the variant נדד ה very unlikely. The translator may have been influenced by several factors in representing נֳָדָּה by ὁ δὲ κύριος ἀπέστησεν. For one thing, κύριος does occur in the Greek Esther, once in a Greek plus to the Masoretic Text (Esther 4:8), and also 24 times in the narrative Expansions to the canonical book of Esther, most of which probably were an integral part of the Greek translation …
Emanuel Tov, The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research, 3rd ed. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015), 183.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Esther 6:1 and LXX Esther 6:1

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