Ester 2:9

2:9 This young woman pleased him, ¹  and she found favor with him. He quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her rations; he also provided her with the seven specially chosen ²  young women who were from the palace. He then transferred her and her young women to the best quarters in the harem. ³ 

Ester 4:14

4:14 “Don’t imagine that because you are part of the king’s household you will be the one Jew ⁴  who will escape. If you keep quiet at this time, liberation and protection for the Jews will appear ⁵  from another source, ⁶  while you and your father’s household perish. It may very well be ⁷  that you have achieved royal status ⁸  for such a time as this!”

Ester 9:24

9:24 For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised plans against the Jews to destroy them. He had cast pur (that is, the lot) in order to afflict and destroy them.

¹ tn Heb “was good in his eyes”; NLT “Hegai was very impressed with Esther.”

² tn Heb “being looked at (with favor).”

³ tn Heb “of the house of the women” (so KJV, ASV). So also in vv. 11, 13, 14.

⁴ tn Heb “from all the Jews”; KJV “more than all the Jews”; NIV “you alone of all the Jews.”

⁵ tn Heb “stand”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT “arise.”

⁶ tn Heb “place” (so KJV, NIV, NLT); NRSV “from another quarter.” This is probably an oblique reference to help coming from God. D. J. A. Clines disagrees; in his view a contrast between deliverance by Esther and deliverance by God is inappropriate (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther [NCBC], 302). But Clines’ suggestion that perhaps the reference is to deliverance by Jewish officials or by armed Jewish revolt is less attractive than seeing this veiled reference as part of the literary strategy of the book, which deliberately keeps God’s providential dealings entirely in the background.

⁷ tn Heb “And who knows whether” (so NASB). The question is one of hope, but free of presumption. Cf. Jonah 3:9.

⁸ tn Heb “have come to the kingdom”; NRSV “to royal dignity”; NIV “to royal position”; NLT “have been elevated to the palace.”