The Jews had light and gladness, joy and honor.
Parallel translations
- WEB The Jews had light, gladness, joy, and honor.
- KJV The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour.
- BSB For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor.
- NASB For the Jews there was light, joy, jubilation, and honor.
- NLT The Jews were filled with joy and gladness and were honored everywhere.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Jews experience light, gladness, joy, and honor. Their sorrow is turned to rejoicing.
Overview
The fourfold description captures the complete transformation of the Jews' condition from mourning to celebration. 'Light' here pictures relief, well-being, and salvation after the darkness of impending doom. The verse beautifully conveys the joy of deliverance, foreshadowing the light and gladness God brings to His people through His saving acts.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 97:11Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
- Prov 11:10When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there is shouting.
- Ps 18:28For you will light my lamp, Yahweh. My God will light up my darkness.
- Esth 4:1–3Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly.
- Ps 30:5–11For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
- Esth 9:17This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
- Isa 35:10The Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
- Ps 112:4Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous.
- Isa 30:29–30You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to Yahweh’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock.
- Esth 4:16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
- Prov 4:18–19But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light, that shines more and more until the perfect day.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Though God is never named, his hidden hand preserves the people from whom the Messiah will come — a deliverance 'for such a time as this' that anticipates the open deliverance of Christ.
How Esther 8:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.