What Does Esther 3:6 Mean in the King James?
And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
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 hand Haman will not send against Mordecai alone becomes, in his plan, a reach toward every person identified with him.
THE MEANING
Haman’s contempt expands from Mordecai alone to an intention to destroy every Jew in the kingdom. The verse exposes how a grievance against one person becomes collective annihilation when identity itself is treated as grounds for destruction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that only one person is at risk dissolves here: Haman’s plan reaches everyone bound to Mordecai by identity.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁלֹחַ יָד
lishloach yad
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, extend, or release.
The phrase translated “lay hands” literally pictures sending a hand toward a target. The verse pivots from the hand sent toward Mordecai alone to a plan aimed at all his people: the reach of the violence expands.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: Sending away, dismissal, release
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch keeps the root’s sense of sending something outward; here the hand’s outward reach carries violence.
shulḥan: Table
שֻׁלְחָן
The same root’s sense of extending outward can also appear in a table spread with provision, showing that what is sent forth can sustain or harm.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters of Shiloah
שִׁלֹחַ
The root can name water sent forth; in Esther, it names the hand sent toward a target.
THE PATTERN
An act aimed at one person can reach beyond them because the individual is bound to a wider people or shared identity.
Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.THE THREAD
And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.The phrases share שָׁלַח יָד (shalach yad, “send the hand”). Genesis halts the hand before it reaches one boy; Esther shows the intended reach widening from one man to a people.
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