What Does Esther 1:20 Mean in the King James?
And when the king’s decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small.
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
What the KJV calls “published” is literally “heard”: the decree travels through listeners before it reaches into each household.
THE MEANING
A royal word moves throughout the empire and sets the expectation that every wife give honor to her husband, whether he is great or small. The verse shows public authority reaching into intimate life and prescribing its terms.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Private life is beyond the reach of public power.
THE ROOT
יִשָּׁמַע
yishamaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
hear, listen; in this form, be heard
The verb rendered “published” says that the decree is to be heard throughout the realm. Its root also gives words for hearing and for a report, showing how a royal word travels as something people hear and receive.
ALSO GROWS
shema: hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This related form makes hearing active; the decree reaches people through a word that calls for a response.
shemuʿah: report, news; what is heard
שְׁמוּעָה
A decree can travel as a report, carrying the king’s words beyond the court.
יְקָר
yeqār
GROWS FROM
יקר
y-q-r
be precious, valuable, costly
“honour” in this verse is yeqār. The word for honor carries the sense of preciousness and value: honor assigns worth. Here that worth is prescribed within every household, across the empire’s ranks.
ALSO GROWS
yāqār: precious, valuable, costly
יָקָר
This adjective shows the value contained in the root behind the verse’s word for honor.
yeqār: honor, worth, preciousness
יְקָר
This noun names worth as something recognized or rendered, linking the verse’s command to honor with the idea of a person’s value.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word reaches beyond its speaker as it is carried into household life.
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.For he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people.And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.THE THREAD
And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him.Esther 6:3 uses the same Hebrew word יְקָר (yeqār, honor and worth). Here honor is prescribed for husbands in every household; there the king asks whether honor has been rendered to Mordecai, exposing the gap between worth and recognition.
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