Ester 1:12

1:12 But Queen Vashti refused ¹  to come at the king’s bidding ²  conveyed through the eunuchs. Then the king became extremely angry, and his rage consumed ³  him.

Ester 1:1

The King Throws a Lavish Party

1:1 ⁴ The following events happened ⁵  in the days of Ahasuerus. ⁶  (I am referring to ⁷  that Ahasuerus who used to rule over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces ⁸  extending all the way from India to Ethiopia. ⁹ )

1 Samuel 8:15

8:15 He will demand a tenth of your seed and of the produce of your vineyards and give it to his administrators ¹⁰  and his servants.

1 Samuel 8:2

8:2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second son was Abijah. They were judges in Beer Sheba.

Kisah Para Rasul 9:32

Peter Heals Aeneas

9:32 Now ¹¹  as Peter was traveling around from place to place, ¹²  he also came down to the saints who lived in Lydda. ¹³ 

Yesaya 56:3

56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of ¹⁴  the Lord should say,

‘The Lord will certainly ¹⁵  exclude me from his people.’

The eunuch should not say,

‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

Kisah Para Rasul 8:27

8:27 So ¹⁶  he got up ¹⁷  and went. There ¹⁸  he met ¹⁹  an Ethiopian eunuch, ²⁰  a court official of Candace, ²¹  queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury. He ²²  had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²³ 

[1:12]  ¹ sn Refusal to obey the king was risky even for a queen in the ancient world. It is not clear why Vashti behaved so rashly and put herself in such danger. Apparently she anticipated humiliation of some kind and was unwilling to subject herself to it, in spite of the obvious dangers. There is no justification in the biblical text for an ancient Jewish targumic tradition that the king told her to appear before his guests dressed in nothing but her royal high turban, that is, essentially naked.

[1:12]  ² tn Heb “at the word of the king”; NASB “at the king’s command.”

[1:12]  ³ tn Heb “burned in him” (so KJV).

[1:1]  ⁴ sn In the English Bible Esther appears adjacent to Ezra-Nehemiah and with the historical books, but in the Hebrew Bible it is one of five short books (the so-called Megillot) that appear toward the end of the biblical writings. The canonicity of the book was questioned by some in ancient Judaism and early Christianity. It is one of five OT books that were at one time regarded as antilegomena (i.e., books “spoken against”). The problem with Esther was the absence of any direct mention of God. Some questioned whether a book that did not mention God could be considered sacred scripture. Attempts to resolve this by discovering the tetragrammaton (YHWH) encoded in the Hebrew text (e.g., in the initial letters of four consecutive words in the Hebrew text of Esth 5:4) are unconvincing, although they do illustrate how keenly the problem was felt by some. Martin Luther also questioned the canonicity of this book, objecting to certain parts of its content. Although no copy of Esther was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, this does not necessarily mean that the Qumran community did not regard it as canonical. It is possible that the absence of Esther from what has survived at Qumran is merely a coincidence. Although the book does not directly mention God, it would be difficult to read it without sensing the providence of God working in powerful, though at times subtle, ways to rescue his people from danger and possible extermination. The absence of mention of the name of God may be a deliberate part of the literary strategy of the writer.

[1:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “it came about”; KJV, ASV “Now it came to pass.”

[1:1]  ⁶ tn Where the Hebrew text has “Ahasuerus” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV) in this book the LXX has “Artaxerxes.” The ruler mentioned in the Hebrew text is Xerxes I (ca. 486-465 B.C.), and a number of modern English versions use “Xerxes” (e.g., NIV, NCV, CEV, NLT).

[1:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the days of Ahasuerus, that Ahasuerus who used to rule…” The phrase “I am referring to” has been supplied to clarify the force of the third person masculine singular pronoun, which is functioning like a demonstrative pronoun.

[1:1]  ⁸ sn The geographical extent of the Persian empire was vast. The division of Xerxes’ empire into 127 smaller provinces was apparently done for purposes of administrative efficiency.

[1:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Cush” (so NIV, NCV; KJV “Ethiopia”) referring to the region of the upper Nile in Africa. India and Cush (i.e., Ethiopia) are both mentioned in a tablet taken from the foundation of Xerxes’ palace in Persepolis that describes the extent of this empire. See ANET 316-17.

[8:15]  ¹⁰ tn Or “eunuchs” (so NAB); NIV “officials”; KJV, NASB, NRSV, NLT “officers.”

[9:32]  ¹¹ tn Grk “Now it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[9:32]  ¹² tn Grk “As Peter was going through all [the places],” which is somewhat awkward in English. The meaning is best expressed by a phrase like “going around from place to place” or “traveling around from place to place.”

[9:32]  ¹³ sn Lydda was a city northwest of Jerusalem on the way to Joppa. It was about 10.5 miles (17 km) southeast of Joppa.

[56:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”

[56:3]  ¹⁵ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[8:27]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “And,” but καί (kai) carries something of a resultative force in this context because what follows describes Philip’s response to the angel’s command.

[8:27]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “So getting up he went.” The aorist participle ἀναστάς (anastas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[8:27]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “And there.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[8:27]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and behold.” This expression is used to portray Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian in a vivid way. In the English translation this vividness is difficult to convey; it is necessary to supply the words “he met.”

[8:27]  ²⁰ sn The term eunuch normally referred to a man who had been castrated, but this was not always the case (see Gen 39:1 LXX, where Potiphar is called a eunuch). Such castrated individuals were preferred as court officials in the East, although Judaism opposed the practice. The Mosaic law excluded eunuchs from Israel (Deut 23:1), although God certainly accepted them (Isa 56:3-5; Wis 3:14). This individual was a high official, since he was said to be in charge of all her treasury. He may or may not have been a eunuch physically. He appears to be the first fully Gentile convert to Christianity, since the Samaritans mentioned previously (Acts 8:4-25) were regarded as half-breeds.

[8:27]  ²¹ tn Or “the Candace” (the title of the queen of the Ethiopians). The term Κανδάκης (Kandakh") is much more likely a title rather than a proper name (like Pharaoh, which is a title); see L&N 37.77. A few, however, still take the word to be the name of the queen (L&N 93.209). BDAG 507 s.v. Κανδάκη, treats the term as a title and lists classical usage by Strabo (Geography 17.1.54) and others.

[8:27]  sn Candace was the title of the queen of the Ethiopians. Ethiopia refers to the kingdom of Nubia in the northern Sudan, whose capital was Meroe (not to be confused with Abyssinia, which was later called Ethiopia and converted to Christianity in the 4th century a.d.). Classical writers refer to several queens of Meroe in the 1st century b.c. and 1st century a.d. who had the title Candace (Kandake). The Candace referred to here was probably Amantitere, who ruled a.d. 25-41.

[8:27]  ²² tn Grk “who was over all her treasury, who.” The two consecutive relative clauses make for awkward English style, so the second was begun as a new sentence with the pronoun “he” supplied in place of the Greek relative pronoun to make a complete sentence in English.

[8:27]  ²³ sn Since this man had come to Jerusalem to worship, he may have been a proselyte to Judaism. This event is a precursor to Acts 10.