2:5

Now: This verse introduces Mordecai, one of the important characters in the story. If you have special ways of introducing characters in stories in your language, you should introduce Mordecai in that way here. The Berean Standard Bible has indicated this by using Now.

citadel of Susa: See note on 1:2.

from the tribe of Benjamin: All Jews traced their ancestors back to one of Jacob’s 12 sons. Benjamin was Jacob’s youngest son.

son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish: Jair, Shimei and Kish were ancestors of Mordecai. Hebrew used the term “son of” in the more general sense of “descendant of,” so some commentators think Shimei and Kish were famous ancestors of Mordecai who had lived many years before him. For example, Shimei is mentioned in 2 Samuel 16:5; and the father of King Saul, the first king of Israel, was called Kish (see 1 Samuel 9:1–2). Good News Translation translates it in this way. However, this verse must be considered with the comments on 2:6 below, which seem to suggest that it is a literal “son of” which was meant here.

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