Bible Strands
Esther 2:21
In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, grew angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records events at the royal gate during the period when Esther has kept her Jewish identity hidden. Mordecai remains stationed at the entrance while two eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, plot against King Xerxes.
The words — קָצַף (ka.Tzaf) = he was angry [H7107]; בִּגְתָן (big.Tan) = Bigthan [H904]. The text explicitly states the eunuchs grew angry and names Bigthan as a conspirator alongside Teresh.
The thread — The plot reappears in Esther 6:2 when the royal chronicles record Mordecai’s prior exposure of Bigthana and Teresh. Parallel palace conspiracies by royal servants occur in 1 Kings 16:9 and 2 Kings 12:20.
Why it lands — The text reports that danger emerged among the king’s own guards and was uncovered through Mordecai’s vigilance and the royal record. It requires the reader to acknowledge how preservation often depends on uncelebrated watchfulness and accurate documentation.
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
In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.
Cross-references
- Esther 6:2 And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
- 1 Kings 16:9 However, while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza the steward of his household there, Elah’s servant Zimri, the commander of half his chariots, conspired against him.
- 2 Kings 12:20 And the servants of Joash rose up and formed a conspiracy and killed him at Beth-millo, on the road down to Silla.
- 2 Kings 21:23 Then the servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his palace.
- 2 Samuel 4:5 Now Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, set out and arrived at the house of Ish-bosheth in the heat of the day, while the king was taking his midday nap.
- 2 Samuel 16:11 Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son, my own flesh and blood, seeks my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone and let him curse me, for the LORD has told him so.
- 1 Kings 15:25 In the second year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel, and he reigned two years.
- 2 Kings 9:22 When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”
- Psalms 144:10 to Him who gives victory to kings, who frees His servant David from the deadly sword.