What Does Esther 9:29 Mean in the King James?
Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim.
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 Hebrew word for “confirm” means to cause something to stand: this letter gives Purim’s remembrance a standing form.
THE MEANING
Esther and Mordecai write with full authority, and their second letter confirms the Purim account. The wording makes confirmation an act of establishing, so the letter gives shared remembrance a place to stand. Here, a repeated account carries weight because it is formally affirmed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The second letter is not mere duplication: its repetition gives the remembrance standing through an act of confirmation.
THE ROOT
לְקַיֵּם
leqayyem
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise, stand, be established.
The word translated “confirm” carries the sense of causing something to stand. Esther and Mordecai’s writing is therefore an act of establishment, not simply a restatement.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise; stand.
קוּם
This is the root’s basic action: what is established is made to stand.
qiyem: Uphold, establish, fulfill.
קִיֵּם
This related form makes the root’s standing image explicit: to confirm is to uphold something so it holds.
maqom: Place; standing place.
מָקוֹם
A place is where something can stand; the letter gives the shared remembrance a stable place.
תֹּקֶף
toqef
GROWS FROM
תקף
t-q-p
Be strong, prevail; strength, force, authority.
The Hebrew behind “all authority” also carries the force of strength and prevailing. The letter’s authority has weight: it gives force to the confirmation.
ALSO GROWS
taqqifā: Strong, mighty.
תַּקִּיפָא
This related form describes strength as the capacity to prevail, echoing the force carried by the letter.
teqaf: Be strong; prevail.
תְּקַף
The verbal branch shows that this authority is active force, not only a title.
אֲבִיחַיִל
Avichayil
GROWS FROM
חיל
ḥ-y-l
Strength, might, capacity.
Abihail combines אֲבִי (avī, “my father”) with חַיִל (ḥayil, “strength, might”), giving the name the sense “my father is strength.” In a verse where Esther writes with full authority, her name carries strength within its own form.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayil: Strength, valor, capacity.
חַיִל
This is the strength element in Abihail’s name, resonating with the authority named in the verse.
ḥēyl: Force; army, host.
חֵיל
The same root can name collective force as well as personal might, fitting a letter that gives a shared remembrance standing.
THE PATTERN
A written word gives shared memory a form that can be carried, witnessed, and relied on.
Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,THE THREAD
To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.The same Hebrew verb לְקַיֵּם (leqayyem, “to confirm, establish”) appears here. What stands in the letter becomes recurring appointed days, showing that its confirmation holds beyond the moment of writing.
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