Paragraph 8:15–17

These verses are in contrast to Esther 4:1–3. Mordecai is dressed in royal robes instead of sackcloth, and there is general rejoicing instead of mourning.

8:15c

crown: This is not the same word in Hebrew as was used in 1:11a, 2:17c and 6:8b. Perhaps a different word was used to make clear that Mordecai wasn’t wearing the king’s crown, but a different sort of hat.

a purple robe of fine linen: This probably means a long cloak or coat, worn over the other garments. It was made of a finely woven material called linen (see note on 1:6a).

purple: see note on 1:6b.

8:15d

And the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced: It is not clear how this sentence is connected to the rest of the verse. Some commentators believe that the city rejoiced when they saw Mordecai in his official robes, but it is more likely that this phrase refers back to the news of the new law. When Haman’s order was issued, the people of the city were upset (see 3:15), but now they rejoiced.

shouted and rejoiced: You should choose an expression in your language which means that the people made a lot of noise to show how happy they were when they heard the news.

© 2000 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.