Introduction

This Greek account of Ester follows a young Jewish woman who becomes queen in the empire of Paras (Persia). Her guardian Mordekai refuses to bow to the powerful official Haman, who responds by planning to destroy all the Yehudim (Jews) in the empire. Ester must decide whether to risk her own life by approaching the king and identifying herself with her threatened people.

Readers of the other OET account of Ester will recognise the main events, but this version also includes Mordekai’s dream, prayers for rescue, royal letters, and further details about Ester’s approach to the king. These passages explicitly describe the characters’ dependence on God and his part in their rescue. The account also explains the celebration called ‘Purim’, when the people remember how their sorrow was turned into joy.

The book of Ester in the Greek Septuagint contains five additions that the traditional Hebrew text doesn’t have. These additions are recognised as Deuterocanonical Scripture by the Romaios Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Russian Orthodox Churches. Those additions are enclosed in [square brackets]. Because the additions by themselves make little sense without the broader context of the book, we present here a translation of the whole book of Ester from the Greek.

We have chosen not to distract the reader with confusing out-of-order chapter numbers that would result from using the KJB versification, but rather merge these 5 additions as extensions at the beginning of 1:1 and after 3:13, 4:17, 8:12, and 10:3. This makes some verses (1:1, 5:1, and 8:12) really long, but it also makes the verses line up with the same verse numbers in Ester as translated from the traditional Hebrew text. Some of the proper names in this book have been changed to the more familiar Hebrew form instead of the direct transliteration from the Greek.

This is still an early look into the unpolished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.