Addition C · The prayers of Mordecai and Esther · Greek after 4:17 · unit 14
She begs: do not hand the scepter to nothing; turn their plot back on them.
Rahlfs 4:17n (lettering not yet checked against Rahlfs) · Swete, Esther 4.1a–30a · .txt · .json
μὴ παραδῷς, Κύριε, τὸ σκῆπτρόν σου τοῖς μὴ οὖσιν, καὶ μὴ καταγελασάτωσαν ἐν τῇ πτώσει ἡμῶν, ἀλλὰ στρέψον τὴν βουλὴν αὐτῶν ἐπʼ αὐτούς· τὸν δὲ ἀρξάμενον ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς παραδειγμάτισον.
Do not hand over your scepter, Lord, to those who are nothing, and do not let them laugh at our downfall; but turn their own plan back upon them, and make an example of the one who began this against us.draft English
What the rabbinic bench shows
0 verbatim · 7 motif · 1 flagged · 18 candidates examined and rejected.
- Oral: shared narrative tradition, thematic rather than literary contact
- Aramaic: carried by a targum; how the targum came by it is open
Motif — candidate parallels
Unverified at pair level: in a seeded sample of forty motif pairs, 58% failed the study's own test. Read each as a candidate.
'He prepared it for himself' -- the gallows recoiling on its builder -- is the specific reversal Addition C's petition anticipates: 'turn their own plan back upon them.'
Show the witness text (5 words)
Punishment coming to the wicked 'out of their own banquet' is the same reversal-at-their-own-hand Addition C's petition requests.
Show the witness text (41 words)
'Haman devised an evil scheme against Israel, and his scheme came up on his own head, and they crucified him' is the specific poetic-justice formula matching Addition C's petition to turn their plot back upon them and make an example of the one who began it.
Show the witness text (36 words)
'He prepared it for himself' (Haman's gallows turned on him) is the precise reversal-of-plot-upon-plotter the plus's prayer requests: 'turn their own plan back upon them.'
Show the witness text (8 words)
'The Holy One hurls calamity on the wicked without pity,' said of Haman's fall, matches Addition C's plea to 'make an example of the one who began this against us.'
Show the witness text (10 words)
Haman glossed as 'ready for punishment -- standing to be hanged' is the specific designation-as-example Addition C's petition requests.
Show the witness text (6 words)
'You devised evil against Israel, and the Knower of secrets raised your device upon your own head' is the same recurring, specific poetic-justice formula matching Addition C's petition to turn their plan back upon them.
Show the witness text (186 words)
Flagged for further study (1)
'Exact our insult from Haman... break Haman, and let there be no rising from his fall' is the specific direct petition matching Addition C's plea to turn the plot back upon its author.
Show the witness text (84 words)
Hebrew retroversions
Machine-assisted reconstructions of a Hebrew the Greek might render, made under Tov's principles and used only as search queries. They are hypotheses, not evidence.
אל תתן יהוה את שבטך לאשר אינם ואל ישחקו במפלתנו אך השב את מחשבתם בראשם ואת המחל עלינו שים לאות
אל תמסר אדני את שרביטך לאשר לא אלהים המה ואל ילעגו לנו בנפלנו והשב את עצתם עליהם ואת אשר החל עלינו תנהו לדראון