Let royal garb which the king has
worn be brought, and a horse on which the king has ridden and on whose head a
royal diadem has been set. (Esther 6:8 | 1985 JPS Tanakh)
Let the king's servants bring a
fine linen robe, which the king hears, and a horse upon which the king rides.
(Esther 6:8 NETS)
Commenting on the difference between the MT and LXX texts, Müller
and Pakkala wrote that:
The LXX of Esther is a classic
example that is assumed to have shortened its Hebrew Vorlage. However, even
in LXX Esther one should always look closely for what exactly may have been
shortened. The Hebrew of Esther is particularly confusing and possibly even
corrupted, and quite a number of the probable omissions and shortenings took
place where the Hebrew seems problematic or even corrupted, and quite a number
of the probable omissions and shortenings took place where the Hebrew seems
problematic incomprehensible. E.g. in Esth 6:8 the LXX leaves out the peculiar
idea that the royal crown is placed on the head of a horse (יסוס אשר רכב עלין המלך ואשר נתן כתר מלכות בראשו), which is very
unlikely to be original. On the other hand, there are also intentional abridgments.
Many of the omissions of Esth 8-9 were motivated by the attempt to censor the
most brutal details where the Jews are allowed to massacre their enemies. This
was probably done in order to make the translation more acceptable to an international
audience in Greek Alexandria. (Richard Müller and Juha Pakkala, Editorial
Techniques in the Hebrew Bible: Toward a Refined Criticism [Resources for
Biblical Study 97; Atlanta, Ga.: SBL Press, 2022], 8 n. 14)
