Esther

Mordecai’s Dream Fulfilled. 1^a Then Mordecai said: “This is the work of God. 2I recall the dream I had about these very things, and not a single detail has been left unfulfilled— 3the tiny spring that grew into a river, and there was light, and sun, and many waters. The river is Esther, whom the king married and made queen. 4The two dragons are myself and Haman. 5The nations are those who assembled to destroy the name of the Jews, 6but my people is Israel, who cried to God and was saved.

“The Lord saved his people and delivered us from all these evils. God worked signs and great wonders, such as have not occurred among the nations. 7For this purpose he arranged two lots:^* one for the people of God, the second for all the other nations. 8These two lots were fulfilled in the hour, the time, and the day of judgment before God and among all the nations. 9God remembered his people and rendered justice to his inheritance.

10^b “Gathering together with joy and happiness before God, they shall celebrate these days on the fourteenth and fifteenth of the month Adar throughout all future generations of his people Israel.”

Colophon.^* 11In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said he was a priest and Levite, and his son Ptolemy brought the present letter of Purim, saying that it was genuine and that Lysimachus, son of Ptolemy, of the community of Jerusalem, had translated it.

* [F:7] Two lots: this passage of the Greek text gives an additional interpretation of the feast. The two lots are drawn by God to determine, respectively, the destiny of Israel and that of the nations; contrast with 3:7 of the Hebrew text.

* [F:11] Several “Ptolemies” (Greek kings reigning in Egypt) had wives named Cleopatra. This postscript dates the Greek version somewhere between 116 B.C. and 48 B.C.

a. [F:1–6] Est A:4–10.

b. [F:10] Est 3:7; 9:17–18, 21, 24–28.