translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: EST

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “house” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV; also in vv. 2, 7 ). Cf. TEV “all the property.”


text: Heb “Esther.” The pronoun (“she”) was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name is redundant here in terms of contemporary English style.


label: NET textual note

text: The LXX does not include the expression “the Agagite.”


text: Heb “my kindred” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB “my race”; NIV “my family”; NLT “my people and my family.”


text: Heb “sent forth his hand”; NAB, NIV “attacked”; NLT “tried to destroy.” Cf. 9:2 .


text: Heb “in that time”; NIV “At once.”


text: Heb “it was written”; this passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “Cush” (so NIV), referring to the region of the upper Nile in Africa. Cf. KJV and most other English versions “Ethiopia.”


text: Heb “He”; the referent (Mordecai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “children and women.” As in 3:13 , the translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.


text: Heb “this” (so NASB); most English versions read “that” here for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “making haste and hurrying”; KJV, ASV “being hastened and pressed.”


text: Heb “shouted and rejoiced.” The expression is a hendiadys (see the note on 5:10 for an explanation of this figure).


text: Heb “light and gladness and joy and honor” (so NASB). The present translation understands the four terms to be a double hendiadys.


text: Heb “peoples of the land” (so NASB); NIV “people of other nationalities”; NRSV “peoples of the country.”


text: Heb “were becoming Jews”; NAB “embraced Judaism.” However, the Hitpael stem of the verb is sometimes used of a feigning action rather than a genuine one (see, e.g., 2 Sam 13:5, 6 ), which is the way the present translation understands the use of the word here (cf. NEB “professed themselves Jews”; NRSV “professed to be Jews”). This is the only occurrence of this verb in the Hebrew Bible, so there are no exact parallels. However, in the context of v. 17 the motivation of their conversion ( Heb “the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them”) should not be overlooked. The LXX apparently understood the conversion described here to be genuine, since it adds the words “they were being circumcised and” before “they became Jews.”


text: Heb “had fallen upon them” (so NRSV); NIV “had seized them.”