Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Mordecai’s guardianship of his orphaned cousin Hadassah (Esther) in Susa, positioned chronologically between the Babylonian exile account and the royal edict that gathers young women into the palace.
The words — אֹמֵן ('o.Men) literally means bringing up or nourishing, and דּוֹד (do.Dod) specifies the kinship tie as uncle.
The thread — The adoption detail resurfaces in Esther 2:15 when Abihail is named her father, the father-son language anticipates 2 Corinthians 6:18, and the focus on physical appearance mirrors the description of Vashti in Esther 1:11.
Why it lands — The verse states the factual conditions of Esther’s orphaned status and Mordecai’s legal care to explain her entry into the royal harem, requiring the reader to track how her protected placement sets the stage for the subsequent deliverance narrative.
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
And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
Cross-references
- Esther 2:15 Now Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle from whom Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. And when it was her turn to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s trusted official in charge of the harem, had advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her.
- Esther 1:11 to bring Queen Vashti before him, wearing her royal crown, to display her beauty to the people and officials. For she was beautiful to behold.
- 2 Corinthians 6:18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
- Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
- Genesis 48:5 And now your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here shall be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.
- Jeremiah 32:7 Behold! Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to you to say, ‘Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.’
- 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
- Daniel 1:6 Among these young men were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.