What Does Esther 10:3 Mean in the King James?
For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.
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 verse joins public stature to shalom: the good sought for a people becomes wholeness spoken across their generations.
THE MEANING
In your life now, influence is joined to seeking the good of your people and speaking wholeness over those connected to you. The verse measures prominence by what it pursues and by the words it extends to the generations that follow.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that rank alone proves greatness: here, stature is bound to seeking communal good and speaking wholeness to others.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound; to make whole.
Shalom carries the sense of wholeness, not only the absence of conflict. Mordecai speaks that wholeness to his people and their descendants, making peace something extended through words and generations.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete, sound
שָׁלֵם
This branch shows the wholeness held inside the peace Mordecai speaks.
shillem: To repay or make good
שִׁלֵּם
The same root can describe making something whole by restoring what is due.
shelamim: Well-being offerings, traditionally rendered peace offerings
שְׁלָמִים
This branch links shalom with shared well-being, widening peace beyond a private feeling.
טוֹב
tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
ṭ-w-b
To be good, beneficial, or pleasing.
The Hebrew phrase seeks the tov of the people: their good or welfare. What the KJV renders as “wealth” is the good that benefits the community, not merely private riches.
ALSO GROWS
tovah: Good, benefit, or welfare
טוֹבָה
This branch makes clear that the good being sought belongs to the people’s well-being.
heitiv: To do good or benefit
הֵיטִיב
It shows tov as something that can be brought about for others, not only possessed.
דֹּרֵשׁ
doresh
GROWS FROM
דרש
d-r-sh
To seek, inquire, or attend to.
This root describes active seeking, not simply wishing for something good. The verse joins that attentive pursuit to the people’s welfare, so their good is something Mordecai searches out.
ALSO GROWS
darash: To seek or inquire
דָּרַשׁ
This is the action named in the verse: pursuing what is good for the people.
midrash: Inquiry or exposition
מִדְרָשׁ
Its shared root preserves the sense of searching closely, the active attention that seeking the people’s good requires.
THE PATTERN
A community’s wholeness grows where people seek its good and actively make peace.
And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.THE THREAD
For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.The word translated “peace” here is shalom, from the same root as the peace Mordecai speaks to his seed. The psalm makes the connection vivid: shalom is spoken within a community of brothers and companions, as Mordecai speaks it across his people and generations.
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