Talmai — Addition C 12: She names the enemies' plan: to erase God's decree, silence his praise, quench his altar.
Licence: English and apparatus CC BY 4.0 (Talmai, Wroot Press); Greek from Swete, CC BY-SA. https://talmai.wrootpress.com/rights/
Canonical: https://talmai.wrootpress.com/unit/esth-plus-04.17-12/
Source edition: H. B. Swete, The Old Testament in Greek, 19.4.1a-30a

GREEK: καὶ νῦν οὐχ ἱκανώθησαν ἐν πικρασμῷ δουλείας ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ ἔθηκαν τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν, ἐξᾶραι ὁρισμὸν στόματός σου καὶ ἀφανίσαι κληρονομίαν σου, καὶ ἐμφράξαι στόμα αἰνούντων σοι καὶ σβέσαι δόξαν οἴκου σου καὶ θυσιαστήριόν σου,
ENGLISH (draft-awaiting-approval): and now they were not satisfied with the bitterness of our slavery, but have set their hands to abolish the decree of your own mouth, and to destroy your inheritance, and to stop the mouths of those who praise you, and to quench the glory of your house and your altar,

PARALLELS:
- [Flagged] Esther Rabbah 7:13 (Esther Rabbah) — conduit: lost intermediary. ER's Torah emerging in widow's garments weeping, and the sages arguing the world exists only for Torah, matches Addition C's specific complex — enemies seeking to abolish 'the decree of your mouth,' destroy the inheritance, and quench the altar's glory — a shared non-MT framing of the crisis as endangering God's own cult/covenant.
- [Flagged] Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Megilat Esther, Midrash on the Book of Esther 6 (Otzar Midrashim: Midrash on the Book of Esther) — conduit: medieval retranslation. Satan's request and God's objection 'what will become of the Torah?', with the Torah appearing in widow's garb and the angels crying 'if Israel ceases, why are we?', casts Israel's destruction as an attack on God's own word and praise -- the specific frame of the plus's charge that the enemies aim to abolish God's decree and silence his praise.
- [Flagged] Esther Rabbah 7:11 (Esther Rabbah) — conduit: lost intermediary. The angelic princes' pleas (e.g., 'if Israel ceases, who offers the sacrifice?') match the same Addition C complex — enemies aiming to silence praise and quench the altar — a specific non-MT theological framing of the threat as cultic.
- [Motif] Rashi on Megillah 11a:15:3 (Rashi on Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. Ahasuerus's specific attempt to halt Zerubbabel's Temple foundation is the concrete 'destroy your house and altar' aim Addition C attributes to the enemies.
- [Motif] Rashi on Megillah 11a:15:4 (Rashi on Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. 'Sitnah -- appointed as an adversary so they would not build it' continues the same specific campaign against God's house Addition C names.
- [Motif] Rashi on Megillah 15b:11:1 (Rashi on Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. The Temple's exclusion from 'even to half the kingdom' is the concrete referent of the 'house' Addition C says the enemies mean to quench.
- [Motif] Rashi on Megillah 16b:8:1 (Rashi on Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. 'Light -- this is Torah, for Haman decreed against studying it' matches Addition C's charge that the enemies set out to abolish God's own decree.
- [Motif] Rashi on Megillah 16b:8:3 (Rashi on Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. Haman's decree against circumcision specifically targets a divine commandment, matching 'abolish the decree of your own mouth.'
- [Motif] Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 1054:13 (Yalkut Shimoni on Esther (Remez 1046-1061)) — conduit: lost intermediary. Haman's indictment targets Jewish worship itself — synagogues, reciting Shema, praying 'מכניע זדים' — matching the plus's enemies who aim to stop the mouths of those who praise God; not MT material.
- [Motif] Targum Sheni on Esther 4:16:2 (Targum Sheni on Esther) — conduit: Aramaic. The twelve thousand priests' cry -- if the beloved people ceases, who will stand and read the Torah and speak your name -- is the specific silenced-worship argument matching Addition C's charge that the enemy aims to stop the mouths of those who praise God.
- [Motif] Megillah 12b:10 (Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. The angels' complaint over missing lambs, doves, altar, priestly garments matches the plus's charge that the enemies aim 'to quench the glory of your house and your altar.'
- [Motif] Megillah 15b:11 (Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. 'Not the one thing that would divide the kingdom -- the building of the Temple' matches the plus's charge that the enemies aim to quench the glory of God's house.
- [Flagged] Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Abba Guryon 3:1 (Sifrei Aggadah on Esther: Midrash Abba Guryon) — conduit: lost intermediary. The Temple is absent from MT Esther entirely; both here (Haman's capital crime is counseling against rebuilding the Temple) and in Addition C ('quench the glory of your house and your altar') the conflict is independently relocated onto the sanctuary.
- [Flagged] Targum Sheni on Esther 5:1:1 (Targum Sheni on Esther) — conduit: Aramaic. Esther's own prayer, 'if Israel perish from the world, who will say before you Holy, holy, holy,' independently supplies Addition C's silenced-praise argument, distinct from the priests' version already linked at 0172.
- [Flagged] Aramaic Targum to Esther 3:1 (Aramaic Targum to Esther (Targum Rishon)) — conduit: Aramaic. Haman going down to Jerusalem specifically to nullify the Temple's rebuilding matches the plus's charge that the enemies aimed to quench the glory of God's house and altar -- a Temple-opposition tradition absent from MT Esther altogether.
- [Motif] Rashi on Esther 9:10:1 (Rashi on Esther) — conduit: lost intermediary. Rashi ties Haman's ten sons to the Ezra-era accusation that halted Temple rebuilding, the same specific Temple-opposition tradition underlying the plus's charge.
- [Motif] Aramaic Targum to Esther 5:3 (Aramaic Targum to Esther (Targum Rishon)) — conduit: Aramaic. The king's oath specifically exempting Temple rebuilding from his 'half the kingdom' offer is the same Temple-opposition tradition matching the plus's naming of God's house and altar as the enemies' target.
- [Motif] Esther Rabbah 4:2 (Esther Rabbah) — conduit: oral. The angels' name-by-name cultic pleading ('who offers before you... who builds the altar... who wears the priestly garments') matches the same Addition C complex as — the enemies' aim to quench the altar and silence praise — a specific non-MT theological framing shared across witnesses.
- [Flagged] Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II 1:1 (Sifrei Aggadah on Esther: Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II) — conduit: lost intermediary. Haman's whole career is dated 'from when he went down to annul the building of the Temple' (citing Ezra 4:6) -- making the enemy's real target God's house, matching Addition C's specific clause 'to quench the glory of your house and your altar.'
- [Flagged] Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II 3:1 (Sifrei Aggadah on Esther: Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II) — conduit: lost intermediary. 'Haman's whole career is dated from when he went down to annul the building of the House' -- matching Addition C's 'to quench the glory of your house and your altar' specifically.
- [Flagged] Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II 3:7 (Sifrei Aggadah on Esther: Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II) — conduit: lost intermediary. Haman's indictment targets their worship itself -- Sabbath assemblies, the Shema, a prayer humbling the arrogant, Torah curses read against us -- matching Addition C's specific clause 'to stop the mouths of those who praise you.'
- [Flagged] Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Megilat Esther, Drash on Purim 9 (Otzar Midrashim: Drash on Purim) — conduit: lost intermediary. Parallel recension of the same scene: 'what of the Torah?' / 'make do with the upper worlds,' with the angels crying 'if Israel ceases, why are we?' -- the enemies' plan reaching God's own Torah and worship, as in the prayer's charge.
- [Motif] Rashi on Megillah 16b:8:4 (Rashi on Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. The fuller gloss identifying 'your word' with circumcision, 'given by a saying,' makes Haman's decree an attack on a commandment identified with God's own utterance -- matching 'abolish the decree of your own mouth' precisely.
- [Motif] Megillah 11a:1 (Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. 'We are slaves... God has not forsaken us... in the time of Haman' specifically frames the Esther-era Jews as enslaved, matching the plus's 'the bitterness of our slavery.'