Esther 5:1–2 and Addition D
Esther before the king: two versions
In the Hebrew, Esther stands in the inner court, finds favor, and touches the sceptre, in two verses. The Greek replaces them with Addition D: she enters radiant but terrified, faints at the king's angry look, and "God changed the spirit of the king into mildness."
Read Esther 5:1–2 and Addition D in every edition
Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not
The family tree
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✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
Every witness, in order
Composed c. 400–150 BC (debated)
Original Esther
No original survives. No copy of Esther has been identified among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Translated c. 2nd–1st century BC
Old Greek Esther (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Et le troisième jour, lorsqu'elle eut fini de prier, elle dépouilla ses vêtements de deuil…
Addition D integrated at its 5:1–2. Old Greek via Giguet's French (its own verse numbers); not checked against Hanhart's Göttingen edition.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Die autem tertio induta est Esther regalibus vestimentis, et stetit in atrio domus regiæ… extendit contra eam virgam auream
Hebrew-based 5:1–2; Addition D appended as 15:4–19.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וַתִּלְבַּשׁ אֶסְתֵּר מַלְכוּת וַתַּעֲמֹד בַּחֲצַר בֵּית־הַמֶּלֶךְ הַפְּנִימִית… וַתִּשָּׂא חֵן בְּעֵינָיו
Esther put on royalty and stood in the inner court… and she found favour in his eyes
No mention of God or prayer.
1611
King James Apocrypha, "The rest of Esther"
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text.
Then God changed the spirit of the king into mildness, who in a fear leaped from his throne, and took her in his arms, till she came to herself again
Addition D as KJV Apocrypha 15:8.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre
What changed, and why
The Hebrew leaves the king's favor unexplained; the Greek attributes it to God and dramatizes Esther's fear. Both versions are read as Scripture in different communities.
What the evidence shows
- Addition D attributes the king's favor to God.
Sources
Related lessons
- Two Banquets and a Deadly Structure →On the third day Esther, in royal robes, stands in the inner court. The king holds out the golden sceptre and offers her up to half the kingdom. She invites him and Haman to a banquet, and there, asked again, invites them to a second banquet. Haman goes out joyful, sees Mordecai who will not rise or move, and goes home to boast to his wife Zeresh and his friends. Zeresh advises: make a structure fifty cubits high and have Mordecai hanged on it in the morning.
- The Greek Additions A–F →Six blocks of text in the Greek Esther, labeled A to F: Mordecai's dream (A) and its interpretation (F); the texts of Haman's decree (B) and the counter-decree (E); Mordecai's and Esther's prayers (C); and Esther's dramatic approach to the king (D). They make God the actor in the story. Catholics and Orthodox read them as Scripture; Protestants place them in the Apocrypha. Jerome moved them to the end, creating the chapter numbers 10:4–16:24.