Bible Strands
Esther 2:10
Esther did not reveal her people or her lineage, because Mordecai had instructed her not to do so.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records Esther’s deliberate concealment of her Jewish identity and family background immediately after she has been elevated to the king’s favor and relocated to the prime section of the harem.
The words — הִגִּידָה (hi.gi.dah) = she had told or revealed, paired with עַמָּהּ (ʿa.ma/h) = her people, form the core verbal and nominal action of the verse.
The thread — This pattern of withheld identity continues in Esther 2:20, which confirms she still had not revealed her lineage, and aligns with the operational discretion outlined in Matthew 10:16 for navigating hostile territories.
Why it lands — The text states a factual compliance with a prior command to remain silent about one’s origins, asking a reader to observe the narrative mechanism of concealed identity without importing external theological or psychological explanations.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew it.
Cross-references
- Esther 2:20 Esther still had not revealed her lineage or her people, just as Mordecai had instructed. She obeyed Mordecai’s command, as she had done under his care.
- Matthew 10:16 Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
- Esther 3:8 Then Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples of every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, and they do not obey the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.
- Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
- Esther 4:13 he sent back to her this reply: “Do not imagine that because you are in the king’s palace you alone will escape the fate of all the Jews.
- Esther 2:7 And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah (that is, Esther), the daughter of his uncle, because she did not have a father or mother. The young woman was lovely in form and appearance, and when her father and mother had died, Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter.
- Esther 7:4 For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”