Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Esther 2:7
And he brought up Hadassah, that [is], Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid [was] fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
7. brought up ] Heb. was foster-father to Hadassah. The word is rendered ‘nursing-father’ in Num 11:12; Isa 49:23.
Hadassah, that is, Esther ] Hadassah, from the Heb. hdas, ‘myrtle. [66] ’ For this was substituted, either on her becoming queen or earlier, the name Esther, from the Persian Sitareh, a star, or from Istar, the Assyrio-Babylonian equivalent of Ashtoreth. For the attempt to identify her with Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, see Introduction, p. xiv. The fact that Mordecai took Esther to be as his own daughter is given as accounting for the familiarity between them.
[66] Cp. the Greek names , , .
The Targum Shn expounds, from the Jewish point of view, the significance of the name Hadassah. She was so called “because as the myrtle spreads fragrance in the world, so did she spread good works. And for this cause she was called in the Hebrew language Hadassah, because the righteous are likened to myrtle.” The same commentary adds, “She was also called Hadassah because, as the myrtle does not dry up either in summer or in winter, so the righteous have a share in this world and in the world to come.” (Cassel, Comm. pp. 299 f.)
his uncle’s daughter ] The Heb. which properly means uncle, viz. a father’s brother, has also sometimes a wider sense, beloved one, friend. We gather from the story that the writer considered Esther to be much younger than her cousin Mordecai.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hadassah, hadassah from hadas (myrtle) would seem to have been the Hebrew, and Esther the Persian, name of the damsel. Esther is thought to be connected through the Zend with aster, star. But there is not at present any positive evidence of the existence in Old Persian of a kindred word.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. He brought up Hadassah] hadassah signifies a myrtle in Chaldee: this was probably her first or Babylonish name. When she came to the Persian court, she was called Esther, [Persian] aster, or [Persian] sitara, which signifies a star in Persian: the name is undoubtedly Persian. Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, and therefore must have been Mordecai’s cousin, though the Vulgate and Josephus make her Mordecai’s niece: but it is safest here to follow the Hebrew.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, Esther; Hadassah was her Hebrew name before her marriage, and she was called Esther by the king after it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he brought up Hadassah (that is Esther) his uncle’s daughter,…. Her Hebrew name was Hadassah, which signifies a myrtle, to which the Israelites, and good men among them, are sometimes compared, Zec 1:8. Her Persian name was Esther, which some derive from “satar”, to hide, because hidden in the house of Mordecai, so the former Targum, and by his advice concealed her kindred: or rather she was so called by Ahasuerus, when married to him, this word signifying in the Persian language a “star” h and so the latter Targum says she was called by the name of the star of Venus, which in Greek is ; though it is said i, that the myrtle, which is called “hadassah” in Hebrew, is in the Syriac language “esta”; so “asa” in the Talmud k signifies a myrtle; and, according to Hillerus l, “esther” signifies the black myrtle, which is reckoned the most excellent; and so “amestris”, according to him, signifies the sole myrtle, the incomparable one. Xerxes had a wife, whose name was Amestris, which Scaliger thinks is as if it was , and the same with Esther; but to this are objected, that her father’s name was Otanes, and her cruelty in the mutilation of the wife of Masistis, her husband’s brother, and burning alive fourteen children of the best families of the Persians, as a sacrifice to the infernal gods; and besides, Xerxes had a son by her marriageable, in the seventh year of this reign m, the year of Ahasuerus, in which he married Esther: but it is observed by some, that these things are confounded with the destruction of Haman’s family, or told by the Persians to obliterate the memory of Esther, from whom they passed to the Greek historians:
for she had neither father nor mother; according to the former Targum, her father died and left her mother with child of her, and her mother died as soon as she was delivered of her:
and the maid was fair and beautiful; which was both the reason why she was taken and brought into the king’s house, and why Mordecai took so much care of her:
whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter; loved her, and brought her up as if she had been his daughter, and called her so, as the Targum. The Rabbins, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra observe, say, he took her in order to make her his wife; and so the Septuagint render it; though perhaps no more may be intended by that version than that he brought her up to woman’s estate. Josephus n calls him her uncle; and so the Vulgate Latin version, his brother’s daughter; but both are mistaken.
h Castell. Lex. Persic. Latin. col. 329. Vid. Pfeiffer. difficil. Script. cent. 3. loc. 28. i Caphtor Uperah, fol. 60. 2. k T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 44. 1. l Onomastic. Sacr. p. 621, 622. m Herodot. Calliope, sive, l. 9. c. 107. 111. & Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 61. 114. n Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6. sect. 2.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(7) Hadassah.This is evidently formed from the Hebrew hadas, the myrtle: Esther is generally assumed to be a Persian name, meaning a star. Unless we assume that this latter name was given afterwards, and is here used by anticipation, we have here an early case of the common Jewish practice of using two names, a Hebrew and a Gentile onee.g., Saul, Paul; John, Mark; Joses, Justus, &c.
Uncle.Abihail (see Est. 2:15).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Hadassah, that is, Esther Tyrwhitt regards Hadassah as the court name, by which she was known among the Persians, and Esther as her Jewish maiden name, by which she was known to her own people. But to this it may be fairly replied that she would be more likely to be known to her own people as well as to the Persians by her royal name; and most interpreters have naturally understood from the expression, he brought up Hadassah, which is Esther, that Hadassah was her early maiden name, and that she took the name of Esther when she became queen. Moreover Hadassah is of Semitic origin, and signifies myrtle; while Esther is the Persian word for star, (Greek, .) The fair and beautiful maiden was known as myrtle; the brilliant and fascinating queen was called star. The name Hadassah is, indeed, substantially identical with Atossa, mentioned by the Greek writers as the wife of Darius Hystaspes, and daughter of Cyrus, but the identity in name is insufficient to identify the Jewish virgin with one who is so clearly represented by Herodotus as both daughter of Cyrus and widow of Cambyses. ( Herodotus, 3:88.)
His uncle’s daughter This uncle’s name was Abihail. Est 2:15. Mordecai and Esther were cousins, but Mordecai was evidently much the older.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Est 2:7. He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther As she was born in Babylon, in analogy to the language of that place they gave her the name of Hadassah, which in the Chaldee signifies a myrtle; but her Persian name was Esther, which some, a little incongruously, derive from , a star, and others from satar, which signifies hidden, because she was concealed in Mordecai’s house; or rather, because her nation was concealed, and she not known, till Mordecai’s merit and services to the crown came to be rewarded. It seems most probable, however, that Esther is only the interpretation of, and consequently bears the same meaning with, Hadassah.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(7) And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
Though Esther makes in the after-part of this history so considerable a figure, yet her introduction is but humble.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Est 2:7 And he brought up Hadassah, that [is], Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid [was] fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
Ver. 7. And he brought up ] He both nourished and nurtured her in the true religion and admonition of the Lord, Eph 6:4 , he was her foster-father and her instructor.
Hadassah
That is, Esther
His uncle’s daughter] Not his brother’s daughter, as the Vulgate rendereth it, after Josephus and Aben Ezra. She was his first cousin, and this was one reason that moved him to adopt her, viz. the bond of nature.
For she had neither father nor mother
And the maid was fair and beautiful
Whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead
Took for his own daughter
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hadassah = myrtle. Not living with Mordecai (who was in the palace, Est 2:5), but brought up by him.
Esther = star. But Rabbi Yehudah derives it from sathar, to hide, because she was hidden in her guardian’s house; and her nationality also was concealed (Est 2:10).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
brought up: Heb. nourished, Eph 6:4
Hadassah: Dan 1:6, Dan 1:7
his uncle’s: Est 2:15, Jer 32:7-12
fair and beautiful: Heb. fair of form and good of countenance, Est 1:11
took: Gen 48:5, 2Co 6:18, 1Jo 3:1
Reciprocal: Est 2:10 – for Mordecai Est 4:14 – but thou Est 8:1 – came before Job 29:16 – a father
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Est 2:7-8. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther Hadassah was her Hebrew name, before her marriage; and she was called Esther by the king after it. Esther was brought also unto the kings house Or taken, and that by force, as the word , tillakach, often signifies: for so great was the power and tyranny of the Persian kings, that they could and did take what persons they liked to their own use.