ADDITIONS TO ESTHER
The Greek version of Esther, found in the Septuagint, contains six additions not found in the Hebrew version of Esther that is in most Bibles. These additions to Esther consist of a prologue, prayers by Mordecai and Esther, the texts of the decrees from King Ahasuerus, amplifications to, and elaborations of, the narrative, and a postscript. In the “Wycliffe Bible” and the first edition of the King James Bible (1611), these additions to Esther are included, but are placed at the end of the Hebrew version of Esther, beginning with verse 4 of Chapter 10, and concluding in Chapter 16. That format is followed here; but in addition, the place where each passage occurs in the Greek version of Esther, and where it would belong in the Hebrew version of Esther, is indicated at the beginning of each section in parentheses. (Modern translations of the Apocrypha, such as the New English Bible, and the Good News Bible, print the entire Greek version of Esther with these additions clearly marked.) Also, in the Greek version of Esther, the names of several of the principals are spelled differently. In order to avoid confusion, and to aid comprehension, here they have been changed to the Hebrew names.
(In the Greek Esther, the following verses also appear as verses 4-13 of Chapter 10.)
CHAPTER 10
4 And Mordecai said, These things be done of God.
5 I have mind on a dream, which I saw, signifying these same things, and nothing of those was void.
6 A little well, that waxed [or grew] into a flood, and was turned into light, and sun, and turned again into full many waters, this well is Esther, whom the king took into wife, and would that she were his queen.
7 And the two dragons, I am, and Haman;
8 and folks that came together, be these, that enforced or endeavoured to do away the name of Jews.
9 But my folk Israel it is, that cried to the Lord; and the Lord made safe his people, and he hath delivered us from all evils, and he hath done great signs, or tokens, and wonders among heathen men [or the Gentiles;]
10 and he hath commanded two lots to be, one of God’s people, and the other of all heathen men [or all Gentiles].
11 And then ever either lot came into a day ordained, or determined, from that time before God and all folks. [And either lot came into the set day before God now from that time to all Gentiles.]
12 And the Lord had mind on his people, and had mercy on his heritage.
13 And these days shall be kept in the month Adar, or March, in the fourteenth and the fifteenth day of the same month, with all busyness and joy of the people gathered into one company, into all the generations of the people of Israel afterward.