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Journey of a Passage

Esther 4:14

"From another place"

"Then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place." The Hebrew never names God; "another place" (maqom aher) has been read as a veiled reference to God, as other human help, or as open. The Vulgate reads "by another occasion."

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

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 it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ 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
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day (additions from Greek, appended)
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.

    le secours et la protection viendront d'ailleurs aux Juifs

    help and protection will come to the Jews from elsewhere

    At its 4:13. In the Greek, Addition C then names God repeatedly. Old Greek via Giguet's French (its own verse numbers); not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.

  3. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day (additions from Greek, appended)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    per aliam occasionem liberabuntur Judæi

    by another occasion the Jews will be freed

  4. 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.

    רֶוַח וְהַצָּלָה יַעֲמוֹד לַיְּהוּדִים מִמָּקוֹם אַחֵר

    relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place

    Later Hebrew used HaMaqom, "the Place," as a name for God.

  5. 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).

    deliverance arise to the Jews from another place… and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

What changed, and why

Readers of faith find God hidden in the phrase and in the book's coincidences (the sleepless king, the timing of the banquets). Others read the Hebrew as deliberately secular, telling a story of human courage. Both readings are old. The Greek resolves it by making the prayers explicit.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Hebrew Esther never names God.
  • Disputed"Another place" means God.

Sources

Related lessons

  • Mourning, Fasting and a Decision →Mordecai tears his clothes and cries loudly in sackcloth before the king's gate; the Jews in every province fast and weep. Esther sends Hathach to learn why. Mordecai sends the decree and asks her to plead with the king. She answers that anyone who goes to the king uninvited dies unless he holds out the golden sceptre, and she has not been called for thirty days. Mordecai replies: if you keep silent, deliverance will arise from another place, but you and your father's house will perish; who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther calls a three-day fast: "If I perish, I perish."