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Journey of a Passage

Esther 3:9

Ten thousand talents of silver

Haman offers 10,000 talents of silver for the right to destroy the Jews. All the library's texts agree. About 300 tonnes of silver, it rivals Herodotus' figure for the whole empire's yearly tribute.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original EstherComposed c. 400–150 BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Esther
Greek
  1. Old Greek Esther (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd–1st century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of Esther, freely, with additions
Latin
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Composed c. 400–150 BC (debated)

      Original Esther

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. No copy of Esther has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

    2. Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC

      Old Greek Esther (library text: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of Esther, freely, with additions

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      je ferai rentrer au trésor royal dix mille talents d'argent

      Old Greek via Giguet's French (its own verse numbers); not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Esther

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      וַעֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים כִּכַּר־כֶּסֶף אֶשְׁקוֹל

      and ten thousand talents of silver I will weigh out

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      I will pay ten thousand talents of silver

    What changed, and why

    Herodotus (3.95) totals the annual tribute of Darius' empire at 14,560 Euboic talents. A private offer of 10,000 talents is deliberately vast, showing Haman's wealth and hatred. Converting talents to modern money depends on the weight standard and silver's value then and now, and is guesswork.

    What the evidence shows

    • Strongly supportedTen thousand talents is of the same order as the empire's annual tribute in Herodotus.

    Sources

    • Herodotus, Histories 7.61, 7.114, 9.108–113 (Amestris; edition not specified)

    Related lessons

    • Haman, the Lot and the Death Decree →The king promotes Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite above all the princes. Everyone at the king's gate bows to him except Mordecai, who has told them he is a Jew. Haman decides to destroy all Mordecai's people. In Nisan of the twelfth year the lot (pur) is cast before him and falls on Adar. He offers the king 10,000 talents of silver; the king gives him his signet ring. On 13 Nisan letters go out in every language: on 13 Adar, kill all the Jews, young and old, women and children, and plunder their goods. "The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed."