What Does Esther 9:19 Mean in the King James?
Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.
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 celebration does not stop at feeling or feasting: its defining act is joy sent from one person to another.
THE MEANING
Gladness takes a shared, tangible form here: a feast, a good day, and portions passing from one person to another. Joy moves outward as provision, becoming something people hold in common.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A good day is only a private feeling or a feast kept for oneself; this verse shows celebration crossing from one person to another.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁלֹחַ
mishloach
GROWS FROM
שלח
š-l-ḥ
To send, release, or let go.
“sending portions” in this verse is mishloach. The Hebrew word for “sending” carries the root שלח, which also means to release. The verse’s gladness takes shape as portions released from one person’s table so they can reach another.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: To send or release.
שָׁלַח
The verb reveals the motion inside the celebration: the portions leave one person’s possession and travel to another.
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters of Shiloah, or Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name echoes the same outward movement: what is sent forth reaches another and carries provision with it.
THE PATTERN
Communal joy becomes visible as food and provision shared across the boundaries between people.
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,THE THREAD
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.Nehemiah uses the same root, שלח, for “send portions.” Esther shows gladness moving between people; Nehemiah makes that movement reach those with nothing prepared.
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