InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEUT JOB YEHO (JOS) HERO (JDG) RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG YOEL (JOEL) MIC ISA ZEP HAB YIR (JER) LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBAD DAN EZEK EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL 2 PS WIS TOB MAN BAR G DAN G ESD L ESD ESG JDT 3 MAC SIR 1 MAC 2 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL LAOD PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
InterlinearVerse Est C1 C2 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10
Est 3 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V14 V15
People tagged in the matching LV passage: Ahasuerus · Haman · Mordecai (EST 2:5)
OET-LV And_he_despised in_his_own_of_eyes to_stretch_out[fn] a_hand on_Mordəkay for_him/it_being_alone if/because people_had_told to_him/it DOM the_people_of Mordəkay and_ Haman _he/it_sought to_annihilate DOM all_of the_Yəhūdī/(Jews) who in_all the_kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh the_people_of Mordəkay.
3:6 OSHB note: We agree with both BHS 1997 and BHQ on an unexpected reading.
OET (OET-RV) But Haman despised the idea of just punishing Mordekai because he’d been told that Mordekai didn’t bow to him because Mordekai was a Yehudi. So Haman decided to annihilate all of Mordekai’s people, i.e., all the Yehudim throughout the kingdom of Ahashverosh.
The next event in the story was that the king promoted one of his officials called Haman to the highest position in the land, next to the king himself. The king ordered all his servants to bow down to Haman in respect to him, but Mordecai refused to do this because he was a Jew. When Haman heard about this, he was angry and planned to destroy all the Jews in the empire. He cast lots to find out the best day to choose for killing the Jews.
And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone.
And then when he learned that Mordecai was a Jew, he decided that to kill only Mordecai was not enough.
the identity of Mordecai’s people: That is, that they were Jews. You may need to state this information explicitly here.
Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes.
Instead he decided to find a way to kill along with Mordecai, all the other Jews throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive
וַיִּ֣בֶז בְּעֵינָ֗יו
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
You can say this with an active form, and you can say who did the action. Alternate translation: [Haman considered that it was not enough]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit
וַיִּ֣בֶז בְּעֵינָ֗יו
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
Haman probably decided to go to such extremes because he was so angry. If it would be helpful in your language, you could say that explicitly.
וַיִּ֣בֶז
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
Despise in this context means not to hate but to think little of or think something is too small. This expression means that Haman decided it would not be enough just to kill Mordecai alone.
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
בְּעֵינָ֗יו
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
Here, eyes stand for “seeing,” and in this case “seeing” means judgment. This phrase means in Haman’s judgment. Alternate translation: [as he saw it]
לִשְׁלֹ֤ח יָד֙ בְּמָרְדֳּכַ֣י לְבַדּ֔וֹ
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
Alternate translation: [he rejected the idea of killing only Mordecai] or [he decided to kill more than just Mordecai] or [he decided that it would not be enough to get rid of only Mordecai]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom
לִשְׁלֹ֤ח יָד֙
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
As in 2:21, the expression to stretch out a hand against means to cause someone physical harm with the intention of killing them.
Note 5 topic: writing-pronouns
כִּֽי־הִגִּ֥ידוּ ל֖וֹ אֶת־עַ֣ם מָרְדֳּכָ֑י
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
The pronoun they refers to the other “servants of the king” from verse 3, and him refers to Haman. The phrase the people of Mordecai is referring to the Jews. Mordecai had told these servants that he would not bow down to Haman because Jews worshiped only God. So this means that the other servants had told Haman that Mordecai was not bowing down to him because he was a Jew.
Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
וַיְבַקֵּ֣שׁ הָמָ֗ן לְהַשְׁמִ֧יד
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
Here, seeking means trying to do something. In this context, it means that Haman decided that he would try to kill all the Jews.
בְּכָל־מַלְכ֥וּת אֲחַשְׁוֵר֖וֹשׁ
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
This means in the entire empire that King Ahasuerus ruled.
Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / doublet
הַיְּהוּדִ֛ים & עַ֥ם מָרְדֳּכָֽי
(Some words not found in UHB: and,he_despised in,his_own_of,eyes to,stretch_out hands on,Mordecai for=him/it=being_alone that/for/because/then/when told to=him/it DOM people Mārəddəkay's and=he/it_sought Haman to,annihilate DOM all/each/any/every the,Jews which/who in=all kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh people Mārəddəkay )
These two phrases refer to the same group of people. The repetition emphasizes how great the threat was to their existence. You could combine them as UST does and say something like “all of the Jews.” Alternate translation: [Mordecai’s people, the Jews]
OET-LV And_he_despised in_his_own_of_eyes to_stretch_out[fn] a_hand on_Mordəkay for_him/it_being_alone if/because people_had_told to_him/it DOM the_people_of Mordəkay and_ Haman _he/it_sought to_annihilate DOM all_of the_Yəhūdī/(Jews) who in_all the_kingdom_of ʼAḩashvērōsh the_people_of Mordəkay.
3:6 OSHB note: We agree with both BHS 1997 and BHQ on an unexpected reading.
OET (OET-RV) But Haman despised the idea of just punishing Mordekai because he’d been told that Mordekai didn’t bow to him because Mordekai was a Yehudi. So Haman decided to annihilate all of Mordekai’s people, i.e., all the Yehudim throughout the kingdom of Ahashverosh.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The Hebrew text, lemmas, and morphology are all thanks to the OSHB and some of the glosses are from Macula Hebrew.
Open Bible Data site copyright © 2023–2026 Freely-Given.org.
Python source code for creating these static pages is available on GitHub under an open licence.
For Bible data copyrights, see the details for each displayed Bible version.
Visit the Open English Translation (OET) main site.