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LXX Esther

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 6

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. 3 And the king said, What honor or favor have we done to Mordecai? And the king's servants said, You have not done anything to him. 4 And while the king was inquiring about the kindness of Mordecai, look, Haman was in the court. And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman had come in to speak to the king, that he should hang Mordecai on the gallows, which he had prepared. 5 And the king's servants said, Look, Haman stands in the court. And the king said, Call him. 6 And the king said to Haman, What shall I do to the man whom I wish to honor? And Haman said within himself, Whom would the king honor but myself? 7 and he said to the king, As for the man whom the king wishes to honor, 8 let the king's servants bring the robe of fine linen which the king puts on, and the horse on which the king rides, 9 and let him give it to one of the king's noble friends, and let him array the man whom the king loves; and let him mount him on the horse, and proclaim through the street of the city, saying, Thus shall it be done to every man whom the king honors. 10 Then the king said to Haman, You have well said: so do to Mordecai the Jew, who waits in the palace, and let not a word of what you have spoken be neglected. 11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and mounted him on the horse, and went through the street of the city, and proclaimed, saying, Thus shall it be to every man whom the king wishes to honor. 12 And Mordecai returned to the palace: but Haman went home mourning, and having his head covered. 13 And Haman related the events that had happened to him to Zeresh his wife, and to his friends: and his friends and his wife said to him, If Mordecai is of the race of the Jews, and you have begun to be humbled before him, you will assuredly fall, and you will not be able to withstand him, for the living God is with him.⁠ 14 While they were yet speaking, the chamberlains arrived, to hasten Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

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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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