What Does Esther 1:21 Mean?
And the word was good in the eyes of the king and the princes, and the king did according to the word of Memucan.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan:THE KEY
The same Hebrew word names both the saying that pleases the court and the word the king turns into action.
THE MEANING
A word received as good can take shape in what is done; speech does not remain separate from action. The verse lets the reader see counsel pass from approval into the king’s deed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that words of counsel can be approved and then have no effect is undone here: the accepted word directs the next act.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
The verbal root means “speak”; the noun names both a spoken word and a matter or thing.
The Hebrew uses the same word, דָּבָר (dābār, word or matter), for the saying that pleases the king and princes and the word Memucan gives. The verse then moves from that word to the king’s action, holding speech and enacted matter together.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: he spoke
דִּבֶּר
This verb from the same root shows the active speech contained in the noun rendered “saying” and “word.”
devarim: words, matters
דְּבָרִים
The plural carries the same root’s range from spoken words to matters or affairs.
THE PATTERN
A word that is received takes visible form in action.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.Then it seemed good to the sent ones and elders, with the whole assembly, to send chosen men from among themselves to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas called Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.THE THREAD
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.Both verses join the word to doing: what is spoken or held close becomes something carried into action. Esther shows a king acting according to counsel; Deuteronomy brings the same word-to-action movement close to the reader’s mouth and heart.
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