What Does Esther 1:10 Mean in the King James?
On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The king’s “merry” heart is called “good” in Hebrew, and the state within him becomes an order carried into other people’s lives.
THE MEANING
The verse makes visible how an inward state travels outward through authority: wine makes the king’s heart merry, and his words reach seven attendants as an order. One person’s private condition enters the movement of other people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A ruler’s mood is private and cannot shape what others are made to do.
THE ROOT
אָמַר
amar
GROWS FROM
אמר
To say, speak.
The Hebrew verb is אָמַר, “he said”; “commanded” conveys the force of his position. The root also forms words for utterance and declaration, so authority is heard in speech before it appears in the attendants’ service.
ALSO GROWS
ma'amar: Saying, utterance, declaration.
מַאֲמָר
The same root can name a formal pronouncement, linking the king’s spoken words to the order they carry.
ne'emar: Is said, is spoken.
נֶאֱמַר
This form keeps the focus on words as something uttered; here, the king’s utterance directs the attendants.
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, pleasing, beneficial.
The phrase calls the king’s heart “good” with wine; the KJV’s “merry” expresses the state conveyed in context. The root’s wider range of goodness and pleasantness remains audible inside this moment of merriment, before it becomes an order.
ALSO GROWS
tovah: Goodness; a good or favorable thing.
טוֹבָה
This form carries the same quality of goodness that describes the king’s heart in the verse.
heytiv: Did good; dealt well.
הֵיטִיב
The root moves from a quality to an action, showing that tov can describe both a state and what that state brings about.
THE PATTERN
Words spoken from authority become routes by which other people are moved.
Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Cæsar? unto Cæsar shalt thou go.THE THREAD
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.Genesis 1:3 uses the same Hebrew root, אמר (amar, “to say”), in “And God said.” Its “Let there be light” is jussive, the grammar of permission rather than manufacture in that creation text, while Esther shows a king’s saying functioning as a royal order.
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