Esther 2:7

brought up Heb. was foster-father toHadassah. The word is rendered -nursing-father" in Numbers 11:12; Isaiah 49:23.

Hadassah, that is, Esther Hadassah, from the Heb. hădas, -myrtle. [66] " For this was substituted, either on her becoming queen or earlier, the name Esther, from the Persian Sitareh, a star, or from Istar, the Assyrio-Babylonian equivalent of Ashtoreth. For the attempt to identify her with Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, see Introduction, p. xiv. The fact that Mordecai took Esther to be as his own daughter is given as accounting for the familiarity between them.

[66] Cp. the Greek names Μυρτία, Μυῤῥίνη, Μύρτις.

The Targum Shçnîexpounds, from the Jewish point of view, the significance of the name Hadassah. She was so called "because as the myrtle spreads fragrance in the world, so did she spread good works. And for this cause she was called in the Hebrew language Hadassah, because the righteous are likened to myrtle." The same commentary adds, "She was also called Hadassah because, as the myrtle does not dry up either in summer or in winter, so the righteous have a share in this world and in the world to come." (Cassel, Comm.pp. 299 f.)

his uncle's daughter The Heb. which properly means uncle, viz. a father's brother, has also sometimes a wider sense, beloved one, friend. We gather from the story that the writer considered Esther to be much younger than her cousin Mordecai.