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Esther 8:17

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8:17Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples17 pretended18 to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them.19

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Footnotes

  1. 17 Heb “peoples of the land” (so ); “people of other nationalities”; “peoples of the country.”
  2. 18 Heb “were becoming Jews”; “embraced Judaism.” However, the Hitpael stem of the verb is sometimes used of a feigning action rather than a genuine one (see, e.g., 2 Sam 13:5, 6), which is the way the present translation understands the use of the word here (cf. “professed themselves Jews”; “professed to be Jews”). This is the only occurrence of this verb in the Hebrew Bible, so there are no exact parallels. However, in the context of v. 17 the motivation of their conversion (Heb “the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them”) should not be overlooked. The apparently understood the conversion described here to be genuine, since it adds the words “they were being circumcised and” before “they became Jews.”
  3. 19 Heb “had fallen upon them” (so ); “had seized them.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And in every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

In every province and in every city to which the edict of the king came, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

In every province and every city where the king’s command and edict reached, gladness and joy took place among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday. And many of the ethnic groups of the land professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews had overcome them.

NLTNew Living Translation

In every province and city, wherever the king’s decree arrived, the Jews rejoiced and had a great celebration and declared a public festival and holiday. And many of the people of the land became Jews themselves, for they feared what the Jews might do to them.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

In every province and city, wherever the king’s edict and his law came, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a banquet and a holiday, and many of the people from the country were posing as Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

KJV 1900King James Version

And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.