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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

Esther 8:6

For how can I watch the calamity that will befall my people, and how can I watch the destruction of my relatives?"

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Ring;   Thompson Chain Reference - Esther;   Queens;   Women;  

Dictionaries:

- Holman Bible Dictionary - Esther;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Apollyon;   Kindred;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for June 26;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For how could I bear to see the disaster that would come on my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?”
Hebrew Names Version
for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come to my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?
King James Version
For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
English Standard Version
For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?"
New Century Version
I could not stand to see that terrible thing happen to my people. I could not stand to see my family killed."
Amplified Bible
"For how can I endure to see the tragedy that will happen to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"
New American Standard Bible
"For how can I endure to see the disaster which will happen to my people, and how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"
World English Bible
for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come to my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?
Geneva Bible (1587)
For how can I suffer and see the euil, that shall come vnto my people? Or howe can I suffer and see the destruction of my kinred?
Legacy Standard Bible
For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the perishing of my kinsmen?"
Berean Standard Bible
For how could I bear to see the disaster that would befall my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?"
Contemporary English Version
and I can't bear to see my people and my own relatives destroyed."
Complete Jewish Bible
For how can I bear to see the disaster that will overcome my people? How can I endure seeing the extermination of my kinsmen?"
Darby Translation
For how shall I endure to see the evil that shall befall my people? and how shall I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
Easy-to-Read Version
I am begging the king because I could not bear to see these terrible things happen to my people. I could not bear to see my family killed."
George Lamsa Translation
For how can I endure to see the calamity that shall come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
Good News Translation
How can I endure it if this disaster comes on my people, and my own relatives are killed?"
Lexham English Bible
For how can I bear to look on the disaster that will find my people, and how can I bear to look on the destruction of my family?"
Literal Translation
For how shall I be able to look on the evil that shall find my people? Or how shall I be able to look on the slaughter of my kindred?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For how can I se the euell that shal happe vnto my people? and how can I loke vpon the destruction of my kynred?
American Standard Version
for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
Bible in Basic English
For how is it possible for me to see the evil which is to overtake my nation? how may I see the destruction of my people?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For how can I suffer and see the euill that shall come vnto my people? or how can I beare and loke vpon the destruction of my kindred?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?'
King James Version (1611)
For how can I endure to see the euill that shall come vnto my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kinred?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For how shall I be able to look upon the affliction of my people, and how shall I be able to survive the destruction of my kindred?
English Revised Version
for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
for hou schal Y mowe suffre the deth, and the sleyng of my puple?
Update Bible Version
for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come to my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
Webster's Bible Translation
For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
New King James Version
For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen?"
New Living Translation
For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed?"
New Life Bible
For how can I stand to see all the trouble that will come to my people? How can I keep on if I see them destroyed?"
New Revised Standard
For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming on my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?"
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For how can I endure to see the ruin that shall overtake my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?
Douay-Rheims Bible
For how can I endure the murdering and slaughter of my people?
Revised Standard Version
For how can I endure to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"
Young's Literal Translation
for how do I endure when I have looked on the evil that doth find my people? and how do I endure when I have looked on the destruction of my kindred?'
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"For how can I endure to see the calamity which will befall my people, and how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"

Contextual Overview

3 Then Esther again spoke with the king, falling at his feet. She wept and begged him for mercy, that he might nullify the evil of Haman the Agagite which he had intended against the Jews. 4 When the king extended to Esther the gold scepter, she arose and stood before the king. 5 She said, "If the king is so inclined and if I have met with his approval and if the matter is agreeable to the king and if I am attractive to him, let an edict be written rescinding those recorded intentions of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote in order to destroy the Jews who are throughout all the king's provinces. 6 For how can I watch the calamity that will befall my people, and how can I watch the destruction of my relatives?" 7 King Ahasuerus replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Look, I have already given Haman's estate to Esther, and he has been hanged on the gallows because he took hostile action against the Jews. 8 Now you write in the king's name whatever in your opinion is appropriate concerning the Jews and seal it with the king's signet ring. Any decree that is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's signet ring cannot be rescinded. 9 The king's scribes were quickly summoned—in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. They wrote out everything that Mordecai instructed to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces all the way from India to Ethiopia—a hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all—to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews according to their own script and their own language. 10 Mordecai wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king's signet ring. He then sent letters by couriers on horses, who rode royal horses that were very swift. 11 The king thereby allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and to stand up for themselves—to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any army of whatever people or province that should become their adversaries, including their women and children, and to confiscate their property. 12 This was to take place on a certain day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus—namely, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar).

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

For how: Genesis 44:34, Jeremiah 4:19, Jeremiah 9:1, Luke 19:41, Luke 19:42, Romans 9:2, Romans 9:3, Romans 10:1

endure to see: Heb. be able that I may see

the evil: Esther 7:4, Nehemiah 2:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 21:16 - Let Joshua 2:12 - that ye will Joshua 2:18 - thy father Esther 4:8 - request Jeremiah 39:6 - before

Cross-References

Genesis 6:16
Make a roof for the ark and finish it, leaving 18 inches from the top. Put a door in the side of the ark, and make lower, middle, and upper decks.
Daniel 6:10
When Daniel realized that a written decree had been issued, he entered his home, where the windows in his upper room opened toward Jerusalem. Three times daily he was kneeling and offering prayers and thanks to his God just as he had been accustomed to do previously.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people?.... I cannot bear it; it will break my heart; I shall die to see all my people massacred throughout the realm; the thought of it is shocking and shuddering; to see it, intolerable: or "how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" the same thing in different words, and somewhat more express and explanative. She explains the evil coming upon her people of the utter destruction of them, not barely an oppression, but an extermination of them; and she makes use of a word expressive of their relation to her, as more endearing, being her kindred; she and they being, as it were, of the same family, and with whom she could not but sympathize in distress.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Esther 8:6. To see the destruction of my kindred? — She had now informed the king that she was cousin to Mordecai, and consequently a Jewess; and though her own life and that of Mordecai were no longer in danger, Haman being dead, yet the decree that had gone forth was in full force against the Jews; and if not repealed, their destruction would be inevitable.


 
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