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Esther 6:2

in Esther 6

And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, of those that kept the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus.

KJV

And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.

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This verse in Esther 6

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Against the Pelagians 3.10 · Written before 420.

Sleep was removed from the eyes of Ahasuerus, whom the Seventy call Artaxerxes, that he might turn over the memoirs of his faithful ministers and come on Mordecai, by whose evidence he was delivered from a conspiracy; and that thus Esther might be more acceptable and the whole people of the Jews escape imminent death.

This site's exposition

Bigthana and Teresh

on Esther 6:2-3

The reading turns up the deed of 2:21-23, Mordecai's warning against the plot of Bigthana and Teresh, filed away five years earlier and never repaid. There is nothing done for him: an act of loyalty sat unrewarded in the record the whole time, waiting for the one night someone would ask the record to speak.

The record, by era

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Rabanus Maurus

Commentary on Esther · Written before 856.

proposed

What can the fact that the king spent a sleepless night mean but that which is written in the Psalm: "See, the one who guards Israel will not sleep or slumber" (Psalms 121). They read before him the histories and chronicles of earlier times in …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Good services are sometimes so far from being a man's preferment that they will not be his protection. Mordecai is at this time, by the king's edict, doomed to destruction, with all the Jews, though it is owned that he deserved dignity. Those that faithfully serve God need not fear being thus ill paid.
And it was found written,....

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

The king’s sleep was disturbed. It was a miracle. 1 Otherwise, would Achashveirosh’s sleep be disturbed, particularly on this night, after having partied earlier in the day. Achashveirosh’s sleep was disturbed by a dream in which he saw Haman grabbing a sword to kill him.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Esther 6:1:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיִּמָּצֵ֣אand it was found

    vaiyimatze'H4672 →455 times

  • כָת֗וּבrecorded

    khatuvH3789 →224 times

  • אֲשֶׁר֩that

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • הִגִּ֨ידhe had told

    higidH5046 →370 times

  • מָרְדֳּכַ֜יMordecai

    maredokhaiH4782 →60 times

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • בִּגְתָ֣נָאBigthana

    bigtana'H904 →

  • וָתֶ֗רֶשׁand Teresh

    vatereshH8657 →

  • שְׁנֵי֙two of

    sheneiH8147 →768 times

  • סָרִיסֵ֣י[the] eunuchs of

    sariseiH5631 →42 times

  • הַמֶּ֔לֶךְthe king

    hamelekhH4428 →2525 times

  • מִשֹּׁמְרֵ֖יfrom [the] guards of

    mishomereiH8104 →468 times

  • הַסַּ֑ףthe threshold

    hasafH5592 →

  • אֲשֶׁ֤רwho

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • בִּקְשׁוּ֙they had sought

    bikshuH1245 →225 times

  • לִשְׁלֹ֣חַto stretch out

    lishloachH7971 →845 times

  • יָ֔דa hand

    yadH3027 →1618 times

  • בַּמֶּ֖לֶךְon the king

    bamelekhH4428 →2525 times

  • אֲחַשְׁוֵרֽוֹשׁ׃Ahasuerus

    ʾachashverooshH325 →31 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

2 in all, six open

Where this verse is studied

About Esther

The Triumph of Mordecai — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Triumph of Mordecai — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Esther: the study guide →Read Esther 6 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Against the Pelagians 3.10; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Esther.

Read on in Esther 6 →