Est 2:23 | TNotes | STEP | 2:23 impaled on a sharpened pole (literally hanged on a tree, or hanged on wood ): This phrase has traditionally been translated hanged on a gallows, but inscriptions from ancient Persia show that impalement was a standard form of execution. Xerxes’ father, Darius I, claimed to have impaled 3,000 Babylonians when he conquered Babylon. Sometimes criminals were executed first and then displayed on a stake, as with the execution of Haman’s sons (9:5-14 ). • This was all recorded: Mordecai was not rewarded until much later (6:1-14 ). • While various records of Xerxes’ reign have been found, the particular book mentioned here no longer exists.

b9:5-14►

c6:1-14►

‏ Esther 2:23

2:23 ^a impaled on a sharpened pole (literally hanged on a tree, or hanged on wood): This phrase has traditionally been translated hanged on a gallows, but inscriptions from ancient Persia show that impalement was a standard form of execution. Xerxes’ father, Darius I, claimed to have impaled 3,000 Babylonians when he conquered Babylon. Sometimes criminals were executed first and then displayed on a stake, as with the execution of Haman’s sons (9:5-14 ^b).

• This was all recorded: Mordecai was not rewarded until much later (6:1-14 ^c).

• While various records of Xerxes’ reign have been found, the particular book mentioned here no longer exists.