Talmai — Addition D 7: The king touches the golden scepter to her neck, embraces her, asks her to speak.
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-05.02-01/
Source edition: H. B. Swete, The Old Testament in Greek, 19.4.1b-11b

GREEK: καὶ ἄρας τὴν χρυσῆν ῥάβδον ἐπέθηκεν ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτῆς, καὶ ἠσπάσατο αὐτὴν καὶ εἶπεν· Λάλησόν μοι.
ENGLISH (draft-awaiting-approval): And raising the golden rod, he touched it to her neck, and embraced her and said: Speak to me.

PARALLELS:
- [Flagged] Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 1056:15 (Yalkut Shimoni on Esther (Remez 1046-1061)) — conduit: lost intermediary. One angel 'הגביה את צוארה' while another stretches the sceptre to reach her — both locate the royal contact specifically at her neck, matching the plus's king touching the golden rod to her neck; not MT (MT has only the sceptre extended, no neck).
- [Flagged] Megillah 15b:9 (Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. The angel who lifts her neck and the angel who stretches the sceptre, combined, match the plus's unique detail of the king raising the golden rod to touch her neck.
- [Motif] Megillah 15b:10 (Bavli Megillah 9a-17a) — conduit: oral. The sceptre's miraculous extension so it could reach Esther is the specific problem the plus solves by having the king raise the rod to touch her neck.
- [Flagged] Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Megilat Esther, Midrash on the Book of Esther 7 (Otzar Midrashim: Midrash on the Book of Esther) — conduit: lost intermediary. The scepter is miraculously stretched from two cubits to twelve so it can reach Esther, matching the plus's 'raising the golden rod, he touched it to her neck' -- a vivid non-MT elaboration of Esther 5:2's bare scepter-touch.
- [Motif] Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim on Megilat Esther, Midrash on the Megillah (of Esther) 7 (Otzar Midrashim: Midrash on the Megillah (of Esther)) — conduit: oral. Same scepter-extension detail (two cubits stretched to twelve) as the parallel recension, matching the plus's golden rod touching Esther's neck.
- [Motif] Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II 5:1 (Sifrei Aggadah on Esther: Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II) — conduit: lost intermediary. The scepter's extension is dramatized into a scene requiring angelic help to touch it -- the same enlarged, dramatized golden-scepter moment Addition D supplies ('raising the golden rod, he touched it to her neck').
- [Verbatim] Esther Rabbah 9:1 (Esther Rabbah) — conduit: medieval retranslation. his arm (not the rod) on her neck, and 'why did you not speak to me' (λάλησόν μοι), in order.