Greek Esther 1:1

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Note: The deuterocanonical portions of the book of Esther are several additional passages found in the Greek translation of the Hebrew book of Esther, a translation that differs also in other respects from the Hebrew text (the latter is translated in the NRSVue Old Testament). The disordered chapter numbers come from the displacement of the additions to the end of the canonical book of Esther by Jerome in his Latin translation and from the subsequent division of the Bible into chapters by Stephen Langton, who numbered the additions consecutively as though they formed a direct continuation of the Hebrew text. So that the additions may be read in their proper context, the whole of the Greek version is here translated, though certain familiar names are given according to their Hebrew rather than their Greek form, for example, Mordecai and Vashti instead of Mardocheus and Astin. The order followed is that of the Greek text, but the chapter and verse numbers conform to those of the King James, or Authorized, Version. The additions, conveniently indicated by the letters A–F, are located as follows: A before 1.1; B after 3.13; C and D after 4.17; E after 8.12; F after 10.3.

Addition A

Mordecai’s Dream

11 ^2 [a]In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the Great, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream.^{(A) 3} He was a Jew living in the city of Susa, a great man serving in the court of the king.^{(B) 4} He was one of the captives whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had taken captive from Jerusalem with King Jeconiah of Judea. And this was his dream:^{(C) 5} Noises^[b] and confusion, thunder and earthquake, tumult on the earth! ⁶ Then two great dragons came forward, both ready to fight, and they roared terribly.^{(D) 7} At their roaring every nation prepared for war, to fight against a nation of righteous people.^{(E) 8} It was a day of darkness and gloom, of tribulation and distress, affliction and great tumult on the earth!^{(F) 9} And the whole righteous nation was troubled; they feared the evils that threatened them^[c] and were ready to perish.^{(G) 10} Then they cried out to God, and at their outcry, as though from a tiny spring, there came a great river with abundant water;^{(H) 11} light came, and the sun rose, and the lowly were exalted and devoured those held in honor.^(I)

¹² Mordecai saw in this dream what God had determined to do, and after he awoke he had it on his mind, seeking all day to understand it in every detail.

A Plot against the King

12 Now Mordecai took his rest in the courtyard with Gabatha and Tharra, the two eunuchs of the king who kept watch in the courtyard.^{(J) 2} He overheard their conversation and inquired into their purposes and learned that they were preparing to lay hands on King Artaxerxes, and he informed the king concerning them.^{(K) 3} Then the king examined the two eunuchs, and after they had confessed it, they were led away.^{(L) 4} The king wrote these things down as a commemoration, and Mordecai wrote an account of them. ⁵ And the king ordered Mordecai to serve in the court and rewarded him for these things. ⁶ But Haman son of Hammedatha, a Bougean, who was in great honor with the king, determined to injure Mordecai and his people because of the two eunuchs of the king.^(M)

End of Addition A

Artaxerxes’s Banquet

1 It was after this that the following things happened in the days of Artaxerxes, the same Artaxerxes who ruled over one hundred twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia.^[d](N)