What Does Esther 1:19 Mean in the King James?
If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate unto another that is better than she.
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 verb behind “not be altered” pictures the decree as something that must not pass over its boundary.
THE MEANING
Here a private conflict becomes a written command, and Vashti’s royal place is assigned to another woman deemed better than she. The decree claims that this judgment cannot be crossed or revised, while her position is treated as transferable. The verse shows how authority can turn a person’s standing into a replaceable office and fix that decision in law.
THE ROOT
יַעֲבֹר
ya'avor
GROWS FROM
ע־ב־ר
ʿ-b-r
To pass over, cross, or go through.
The phrase rendered “not be altered” uses a verb meaning “pass over.” The decree is presented as a boundary no one may cross, so its permanence is more than a written condition: it limits what may be done.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: To pass over or cross.
עָבַר
This verb’s concrete image is present in the decree’s claim that it must not pass out of force.
ma'avar: A passage or crossing.
מַעֲבָר
This noun carries the same crossing-image, making visible the boundary the decree claims cannot be crossed.
THE PATTERN
When authority writes a command as unalterable, its words are made to outlast the moment and judgment that produced them.
Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring: for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse.Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;THE THREAD
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.The word translated “transgressed” is עָבְרוּ (ʿāveru), meaning “they crossed” or “passed over,” from the same root ע־ב־ר as “altered” in Esther. Esther’s decree is framed as something that must not be crossed; Isaiah uses that crossing-image for laws that have been violated.
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