Core Glossary
Esther — Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package)
Legend — Risk Tiers (identical definitions to the Romans baseline bible_term_registry.json):
- Critical — doctrinally load-bearing term with a strong, specific collision with Hmong traditional religion that could invert or neutralize the doctrine if unaddressed.
- High — real potential for confusion with a specific traditional-religious concept/practice; manageable with a documented disambiguating strategy.
- Medium — partial semantic mismatch, register gap, or comprehension gap with no direct collision.
- Low — already-stable, safe rendering with minimal ambiguity.
Terms marked “(reused — Romans TM)” carry a permanent, non-negotiable rendering already fixed in the Romans baseline translation_memory.json and MUST NOT be altered here. Terms marked “(NEW — Esther)” are proposed additions requiring formal TM-revision review before permanent adoption, per 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §2.4.
| # | English Term | Original (Hebrew unless noted) | Transliteration | Hmong Rendering | Risk | Chapters | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | God | (unnamed in Hebrew MT; Greek LXX Additions: θεός) | theos | Vajtswv | Low | (implicit throughout; explicit only in LXX Additions) | reused — Romans TM | God is never named in the Hebrew text; this entry applies only if/when LXX Additions are used. See 07_semantic_analysis.md §0, §3. |
| 2 | Lord | (Greek LXX Additions only: κύριος) | kyrios | tus Tswv | Low | (LXX Additions only) | reused — Romans TM | Must not be confused with Huab Tais (Persian king). |
| 3 | Jew(s) | יְהוּדִי | Yehudi | cov Yudas | Low | 2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10 | reused — Romans TM | Established transliteration; stable. |
| 4 | king (Ahasuerus) | מֶלֶךְ | melekh | Huab Tais | Medium | 1-10 | NEW — Esther | Must remain lexically distinct from tus Tswv (Lord/God) at all times. |
| 5 | queen | מַלְכָּה | malkah | Puj Huab Tais | Low | 1,2,5,7,9 | NEW — Esther | Comprehension-level only. |
| 6 | royal decree/law (Persia) | דָּת | dat | Txoj Kevcai ntawm Huab Tais | High | 1,3,4,8 | NEW — Esther | MUST NEVER carry the baseline’s (ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes) qualifier; must remain lexically and structurally distinct from the Romans-baseline law_mosaic_divine entry to avoid collapsing Persian civil law into Mosaic/divine Law. |
| 7 | golden scepter | שַׁרְבִיט הַזָּהָב | sharvit hazahav | tus pas kub cim tso cai | Medium | 4,5 | NEW — Esther | Cultural/comprehension gap only; requires explanatory note. |
| 8 | escape (personal, false security) | נִמְלַט | nimlat / malat | dim (negated: tsis dim) | Medium | 4 | NEW — Esther | Must be kept visibly distinct in context from #9 below to avoid apparent self-contradiction. |
| 9 | deliverance / relief (corporate, providential) | הַצָּלָה / רְוָחָה | hatzalah / revachah | kev cawm dim | Critical | 4 | NEW — Esther | Reuses baseline lexeme kev cawm dim, but the baseline’s mandatory Christ-anchor cannot apply (pre-Christian, God-unnamed narrative). New anchoring convention: anchor via teaching note to hidden_providence (#27), never left theologically unanchored, never conflated with generic luck. |
| 10 | perish | אבד | avad | puas tsuaj / tuag tas | Medium | 4 | NEW — Esther | Ordinary destruction vocabulary; kept distinct in register from the emphatic idiom #11. |
| 11 | ”if I perish, I perish” | וְכַאֲשֶׁר אֹבַד אָבָדְתִּי | vekha’asher ovad avaditi | yog kuv yuav tuag, kuv kam tuag | Critical | 4 | NEW — Esther | Central Courage-doctrine phrase; must never be rendered with hmoov-family fatalism vocabulary; must read as resolute, faith-grounded moral courage, not passive resignation to fate. |
| 12 | ”who knows… for such a time as this” | כִּי מִי יוֹדֵעַ… לְעֵת כָּזֹאת | ki mi yode’a… le’et kazot | preserve rhetorical-question form; no inserted divine name in-text | Critical | 4 | NEW — Esther | Central Hidden-Providence phrase; must not insert “Vajtswv” into the translated clause itself (preserves authorial indirection); must not use hmoov vocabulary; mandatory accompanying teaching note required at every occurrence. |
| 13 | fast (religious abstention) | צום | tzom | kev yoo mov | Medium | 4 | NEW — Esther | Existing Hmong Christian term; teaching note required distinguishing corporate God-directed appeal from ritual manipulation of spirits. |
| 14 | sackcloth and ashes | שַׂק וָאֵפֶר | saq va’efer | tsoos khaub ncaws pluag thiab tshauv | Low-Medium | 4 | NEW — Esther | Comprehension bridge to existing Hmong mourning-garment custom; no collision. |
| 15 | mourning/lament | אֵבֶל / מִסְפֵּד | evel / mispēd | kev quaj ntsuag | Low | 4 | NEW — Esther | Reuses standard Hmong funeral-lament vocabulary. |
| 16 | human favor (court/interpersonal) | חֵן / חֶסֶד | chen / chesed | kev pom zoo / txaus siab | High | 2,5 | NEW — Esther | MUST NEVER be rendered txiaj ntsim (baseline, reserved exclusively for salvific grace); explicit cross-reference required to prevent doctrinal blending. |
| 17 | bow down / prostrate (demanded homage) | הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה / כָּרַע | hishtachavah / kara | txhos caug (civil sense only) | Critical | 3 | NEW — Esther | Must NOT be rendered with baseline pehawm (worship) until/unless the narrative itself frames it as worship-level homage; mandatory teaching note on the civil-vs-cultic ambiguity driving Mordecai’s refusal. |
| 18 | Agagite (Haman’s ancestry) | אֲגָגִי | Agagi | transliteration + footnote | Medium | 3 | NEW — Esther | Old Testament intertextual reference (1 Samuel 15, Amalek); comprehension gap, no traditional-religion collision. |
| 19 | lot(s) / Pur (divinatory practice) | פּוּר | pur | pur (transliterated, glossed) | Critical | 3,9 | NEW — Esther | Pagan divinatory practice; must be explicitly taught as a false mechanism overturned by God’s true hidden providence — never presented as neutral “random drawing,” never given legitimacy. |
| 20 | annihilate, kill, and destroy (genocide edict) | לְהַשְׁמִיד וְלַהֲרֹג וּלְאַבֵּד | lehashmid velaharog ule’abbed | muab tua kom tuag tag nrho, ua kom puam tsuaj, thiab rhuav tshem kom tu noob tu nyoog | High | 3,7,8 | NEW — Esther | Triple-synonym intensity must be preserved; never softened to generic “trouble/persecution” vocabulary. |
| 21 | gallows/execution-stake | עֵץ | etz | tus ncej/pas ntoo tua neeg | Medium (lexical) / High (doctrinal significance) | 5,6,7 | NEW — Esther | Likely Persian impalement stake, not Western rope-gallows; requires clarifying note to avoid anachronistic imagery; central prop of the Reversal doctrine. |
| 22 | honor (civic) | יְקָר | yeqar | kev hwm / kev qhuas | Low-Medium | 6 | NEW — Esther | Kept distinct from baseline lub yeeb koob (glory), reserved for divine/eschatological splendor. |
| 23 | signet ring | טַבַּעַת | taba’at | nplhaib cim lus ntawm huab tais | Low-Medium | 3,8 | NEW — Esther | Comprehension gap only; authority-delegation custom. |
| 24 | light and gladness / joy (relief) | אוֹרָה וְשִׂמְחָה | orah vesimchah | kev muaj kaj lug thiab kev zoo siab | Low | 8,9 | NEW — Esther | No traditional-religion collision identified. |
| 25 | fear/dread (of the Jews, upon the peoples) | פַּחַד | pachad | kev ntshai | Low | 8,9 | NEW — Esther | Stable, ordinary term. |
| 26 | reversal (“it was turned”) | נֶהְפוֹךְ | nehpokh (root: haphakh) | narrative text: raug tig hloov; teaching prose: Vajtswv muab tig hloov kom zoo rov qab | Critical | 9 | NEW — Esther | Namesake term for the “Reversal (Purim)” doctrine; primary risk is fatalistic hmoov-style misreading (“luck simply flipped”); mandatory contrast-teaching at every occurrence. |
| 27 | Hidden Providence (doctrinal label, not a single lexical item) | (no single Hebrew lexeme — the book’s overall literary strategy) | — | Vajtswv txoj kev tsom kwm zais cia | Critical | 4 (esp. v.14), 6, 9 (structurally, all 10 chapters) | NEW — Esther, interpretive/catechetical construct | Must be used only in teaching notes/catechesis, never inserted into the translated biblical text itself, to preserve the author’s deliberate textual silence about God; anchors #9, #11, #12, #26 above. |
| 28 | Purim (festival name) | פּוּרִים | Purim | Purim (transliterated proper noun) | High | 9 | NEW — Esther | Mandatory first-occurrence footnote tracing etymology to #19 (pur, pagan lot-casting) and its ironic reversal. |
| 29 | sending portions / gifts to the poor (Purim custom) | מִשְׁלוֹח מָנוֹת / מַתָּנוֹת לָאֶבְיוֹנִים | mishloach manot / mattanot la’evyonim | kev xa khoom noj rau ib leeg thiab pub rau cov pluag | Medium | 9 | NEW — Esther | Comprehension gap; avoid implying equivalence with Hmong New Year gift customs. |
| 30 | self-defense killing (Jews defend themselves) | הרג | harag | (reuses ordinary kill-vocabulary) | Medium-High (doctrinal sensitivity) | 9 | NEW — Esther | Must be consistently framed as authorized self-defense against a standing annihilation order; never glorify violence generally; never drift into vengeance-glorifying register. |
| 31 | greatness / renown (Mordecai, civil office) | גָּדוֹל | gadol | nto moo lug / muaj meej mom | High | 10 | NEW — Esther | Deliberately avoids the baseline-flagged hwjchim, which structurally requires the Vajtswv qualifier and would misattribute divine power to Mordecai’s human political prominence. |
| 32 | book of records/chronicles | סֵפֶר דִּבְרֵי הַיָּמִים | sefer divrei hayamim | phau ntawv keeb kwm | Low | 6,10 | NEW — Esther | Stable descriptive phrase. |
| 33 | royal banquet/feast | מִשְׁתֶּה | mishteh | rooj noj rooj haus loj ntawm huab tais | Low | 1,2,5,7,9 | NEW — Esther | Stable descriptive phrase. |
| 34 | eunuchs/court officials | סָרִיס | saris | cov nom tswv saib xyuas huab tais lub tsev | Medium | 1,2,4,6 | NEW — Esther | Cultural/comprehension gap; no native Hmong equivalent office. |
| 35 | royal/human wrath (distinct from Wrath of God) | חֵמָה / קֶצֶף | chemah / qetsef | kev npau taws (human referent only) | Medium | 1,2,7 | NEW — Esther | Must be kept contextually distinct from Romans-baseline kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv. |
| 36 | conceal one’s identity/people | (descriptive, cf. 2:10,2:20) | — | tsis qhia seb nws yog haiv neeg twg | Medium | 2 | NEW — Esther | Feeds “Faithfulness in a Foreign Culture” doctrine; teaching note distinguishing strategic silence from denial of identity. |
| 37 | conspiracy/plot | קֶשֶׁר | qesher | kev npaj tuag huab tais | Low | 2 | NEW — Esther | Stable descriptive phrase. |
| 38 | adversary/enemy | צַר / אוֹיֵב | tsar / oyev | tus yeeb ncuab | Low | 7 | NEW — Esther | Stable existing term. |
Summary Statistics
- Total terms catalogued: 38 (3 reused exactly from the Romans TM baseline; 35 new candidate entries for this Esther Language Package).
- Critical-risk new terms: 7 (#9, 11, 12, 17, 19, 26, 27) — all require mandatory human theologian review before publication.
- High-risk new terms: 6 (#6, 16, 20, 28, 31, and cross-referenced #21’s doctrinal significance) — all require mandatory human theologian review before publication.
- Chapters with full coverage: 1-10, all reviewed; no chapter silently omitted (see
analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md§2 and §4 for the explicit per-chapter and cross-cutting summaries). - Governing principle: No rendering in this glossary may contradict or duplicate-with-variation any Critical/High term already fixed in the Romans baseline
translation_memory.json. Where Esther’s subject matter runs parallel to a Romans-flagged collision (fate/hmoov,hwjchim,pehawm,txiaj ntsim,Txoj Kevcai), this glossary extends the same forbidden-substitution logic rather than re-deriving it independently.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: txiaj ntsim
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: Grace and Salvation by Faith Alone (Romans); permanent boundary term for Esther’s court-favor vocabulary
Rejected alternatives: koob hmoov (fortune/blessing tied to fate and ritual correctness) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN
Inherited from Romans package. Reserved permanently and exclusively for salvific/covenantal grace. MUST NEVER be used for Esther’s ordinary court favor before Hegai and the king (2:9, 2:17) — see the new entry ‘human_favor_court’ for the required distinct rendering. Any blending of the two entries is a Critical doctrinal-blending risk.
Election Choose
Approved rendering: kev xaiv (Vajtswv xaiv raws li nws lub siab nyiam)
Transliteration: eklogē / eklegomai
Doctrine: Election and the Sovereignty of God (Romans); precedent-setting boundary term for Esther’s Hidden Providence, Courage, and Reversal doctrines
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (impersonal fate/fortune) vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, collapses personal divine choice into fatalism
Inherited from Romans package. This entry’s forbidden-substitution precedent (hmoov permanently forbidden for personal divine sovereignty) is EXTENDED with heightened urgency to three Esther doctrines that have no explicit in-text divine name to anchor against fatalistic misreading: Hidden Providence (4:14, 9:1), Courage and Risk (4:16), and Reversal/Purim (9:1). See new entries ‘hidden_providence’, ‘if_i_perish_i_perish’, and ‘reversal_purim’.
Law Mosaic Divine
Approved rendering: Txoj Kevcai (ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes)
Transliteration: nomos / (Esther has no direct occurrence; boundary term against דָּת dat)
Doctrine: The Law and Its Purpose (Romans); permanent boundary term for Esther’s Persian civil-decree vocabulary
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘Txoj Kevcai’ without qualifier — rejected, collapses into kev cai dab qhuas (ancestral spirit-worship customs), imported loanword for ‘law’ — rejected
Inherited from Romans package. Qualifier ‘(ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes)’ remains mandatory at every occurrence without exception. This qualifier MUST NEVER be attached to the new Esther entry ‘royal_decree_persia’ (Txoj Kevcai ntawm Huab Tais); the two entries share the root morpheme kevcai and must be kept structurally and lexically distinct at every occurrence to prevent collapsing Persian civil statute into God’s covenantal Law.
Deliverance Corporate Providential
Approved rendering: kev cawm dim
Transliteration: hatzalah / revachah
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation; The Hidden Providence of God
Rejected alternatives: leaving the phrase theologically unanchored — rejected, defaults to generic luck or successful political maneuvering, inserting ‘Yexus Khetos’ as an anachronistic in-text anchor, mechanically copying the Romans baseline’s mandatory Christ-anchor — rejected, misrepresents the pre-Christian, God-unnamed Hebrew narrative
NEW ENTRY (extends the inherited ‘salvation_save’ lexeme with an Esther-specific anchoring convention). Governs Esther 4:14 (‘relief and deliverance… from another place’). The correct anchoring strategy is a mandatory accompanying teaching note directing hearers to ‘hidden_providence’ (never inserted into the biblical text itself), with a typological line drawn FORWARD to Christ’s greater deliverance only in catechetical prose, never into the Esther narrative text. Escalates to human theologian review.
If I Perish I Perish
Approved rendering: yog kuv yuav tuag, kuv kam tuag
Transliteration: vekha’asher ovad avaditi
Doctrine: Courage and Risk for God’s People
Rejected alternatives: yog hmoov li ntawd, kuv yuav tsum txais (‘if that’s my fate/fortune, I must accept it’) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, flattens active faith-grounded consent into fatalistic resignation
NEW ENTRY. Fixed atomic idiom for Esther 4:16, the doctrinal centerpiece of Courage and Risk. The volitional verb ‘kam’ (consent/agree) is structurally mandatory and must never be dropped, even in space-constrained contexts (titles, quiz options) — it is what marks this as chosen courage rather than fate-acceptance. Escalates to human theologian review.
Who Knows Such A Time As This
Approved rendering: preserve rhetorical-question form in the translated biblical text; no inserted divine name
Transliteration: ki mi yode’a… le’et kazot
Doctrine: The Hidden Providence of God
Rejected alternatives: inserting ‘Vajtswv’ directly into the translated clause — rejected, erases the author’s deliberate rhetorical indirection, hmoov-family vocabulary for ‘who knows’/‘such a time as this’ — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, collapses purposeful providence into impersonal fatalism
NEW ENTRY. Fixed rendering strategy for Esther 4:14, the single most important phrase in the book for Hidden Providence. Mandatory accompanying teaching note required at every occurrence to make the providential referent explicit outside the biblical text itself. Escalates to human theologian review.
Bow Down Demanded Homage
Approved rendering: txhos caug (civil sense only)
Transliteration: hishtachavah / kara
Doctrine: Faithfulness in a Foreign Culture
Rejected alternatives: pehawm (Romans-baseline cultic worship term) applied here before the narrative resolves the ambiguity — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN at this stage of the narrative
NEW ENTRY. Governs Haman’s demanded homage and Mordecai’s refusal (3:2-5). The Hebrew verb spans both ordinary civil obeisance and cultic worship; the ambiguity between the two drives the plot and must be preserved, not resolved, by the lexical choice itself. Mandatory teaching note required on the civil-vs-cultic ambiguity underlying Mordecai’s conscience. Escalates to human theologian review.
Lot Pur Divinatory Practice
Approved rendering: pur (transliterated, glossed)
Transliteration: pur
Doctrine: Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: functional/native Hmong descriptive name (e.g. ‘kev rho ntawv kom paub hnub zoo’) given as the primary rendering — rejected, would legitimize a living, currently-practiced Hmong divinatory custom by giving the pagan practice a native cultural equivalence, presenting the lot-casting as a neutral ‘random drawing’ — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN
NEW ENTRY. Governs Haman’s divinatory date-selection for the planned genocide (3:7) and the etymological root of Purim (ch.9). Must always be explicitly taught as a false, pagan mechanism that the narrative deliberately subverts and overturns through God’s true hidden providence, never given religious legitimacy. Escalates to human theologian review.
Reversal Purim
Approved rendering: narrative text: raug tig hloov; teaching prose: Vajtswv muab tig hloov kom zoo rov qab
Transliteration: venehefokh hu (root haphakh)
Doctrine: Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: hmoov hloov (‘fortune simply flipped’) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, misattributes the climactic outcome to impersonal luck
NEW ENTRY. Namesake term for the Reversal doctrine (9:1). The agentless grammar of the narrative-register rendering is preserved deliberately, mirroring the Hebrew text’s own silence about the divine agent; agency is named only in the accompanying catechetical-register gloss, never inserted into the narrative text itself. Mandatory contrast-teaching note required at every occurrence. Escalates to human theologian review.
Hidden Providence
Approved rendering: Vajtswv txoj kev tsom kwm zais cia
Transliteration: — (no single Hebrew lexeme; the book’s overall literary strategy of divine silence)
Doctrine: The Hidden Providence of God
Rejected alternatives: insertion of this phrase (or ‘Vajtswv’) directly into the translated biblical narrative text — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, destroys the Hebrew author’s deliberate textual silence about God
NEW ENTRY. Interpretive/catechetical construct, not a text-insertion rendering. Must be used only in teaching notes and catechesis (accompanying 2:19-23, 4:14, 6:1-13, 9:1, 10:3), never inserted into the translated biblical text itself. Anchors ‘deliverance_corporate_providential’, ‘if_i_perish_i_perish’, ‘who_knows_such_a_time_as_this’, and ‘reversal_purim’. Escalates to human theologian review.
High Risk Terms
Salvation Save
Approved rendering: kev cawm dim / cawm
Transliteration: sōtēria / sōzō (Greek); Hebrew referent in Esther: הַצָּלָה/רְוָחָה hatzalah/revachah
Doctrine: The Gospel as the Power of God for Salvation (Romans) / Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation; The Hidden Providence of God (Esther)
Rejected alternatives: unanchored ‘dim’ (escape) parallel to shamanic soul-rescue (ua neeb) — rejected without explicit anchoring
Inherited from Romans package. The Romans baseline mandates this lexeme always be anchored explicitly to Yexus Khetos as sole agent; this mandatory Christ-anchor CANNOT be applied in Esther’s pre-Christian, God-unnamed narrative. See the new Esther entry ‘deliverance_corporate_providential’ for the required substitute anchoring convention (teaching-note anchor to ‘hidden_providence’, never inserted into the biblical text). This entry’s risk is elevated to Critical in Esther-specific usage; see the dedicated new entry for full escalation detail.
Power
Approved rendering: hwjchim
Transliteration: dynamis
Doctrine: The Gospel as the Power of God for Salvation (Romans); cross-cutting boundary term for Esther
Rejected alternatives: bare, unqualified hwjchim — FORBIDDEN, identical to a shaman’s (txiv neeb) ritual power
Inherited from Romans package. Must always be qualified as ‘Vajtswv hwjchim’ when referring to divine power. In Esther this lexeme is deliberately AVOIDED ENTIRELY for human political power (see new entry ‘greatness_renown_civil’ for Mordecai’s civil prominence, ch.10) — a stricter fence than Romans itself required, since Esther’s plot is human political maneuvering that must never borrow supernatural-power vocabulary.
Wrath Of God
Approved rendering: kev npau taws ntawm Vajtswv
Transliteration: orgē theou
Doctrine: Original Sin and Universal Guilt (Romans); boundary term for Esther’s human/royal wrath
Rejected alternatives: unqualified ‘npau taws’ associated only with capricious spirit/ancestor anger — rejected without explicit contrast teaching
Inherited from Romans package. Must be kept lexically and contextually distinct from the new Esther entry ‘royal_human_wrath’ (Ahasuerus’s and Haman’s ordinary, capricious human anger, ch.1,2,7); a teaching note is required whenever royal anger appears in Esther content to prevent conflation with God’s righteous judicial wrath.
Foreknow Predestine
Approved rendering: twb paub ua ntej lawm / twm chaw ua ntej lawm
Transliteration: proginōskō / proorizō
Doctrine: Election and the Sovereignty of God (Romans); comparative precedent for Esther’s Hidden Providence doctrine
Rejected alternatives: hmoov (fate) vocabulary — rejected, same collision risk as election_choose
Inherited from Romans package. Cited in Esther’s comparative theology analysis as the closest Romans-baseline structural parallel to Mordecai’s ‘who knows… for such a time as this’ (4:14) — both name a purposeful divine ordering of events without collapsing into hmoov-style fatalism.
Worship Serve Cultic
Approved rendering: pehawm / pab teev
Transliteration: latreuō
Doctrine: Christian Living and Unity in the Church (Romans); boundary term for Esther’s civil-bow ambiguity
Rejected alternatives: bare, unanchored pehawm — FORBIDDEN, identical verb used for pehawm dab (ancestor/spirit veneration)
Inherited from Romans package. Object of pehawm must always be stated (‘pehawm Vajtswv’). In Esther, this term must NOT be applied to Haman’s demanded homage (3:2-5) — see the new entry ‘bow_down_demanded_homage’ — since doing so would prematurely resolve, in translation, the civil-vs-cultic ambiguity the Hebrew text deliberately holds open until Mordecai’s own refusal reveals his worship-level objection.
Royal Decree Persia
Approved rendering: Txoj Kevcai ntawm Huab Tais
Transliteration: dat
Doctrine: Faithfulness in a Foreign Culture; cross-referenced boundary against The Law and Its Purpose (Romans)
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘Txoj Kevcai’ shared with the Romans-baseline divine-Law entry — rejected, the Romans-baseline qualifier ‘(ntawm Vajtswv / Mauxes)’ applied here — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN
NEW ENTRY. Governs Esther 1:19 (Vashti’s deposition), 3:8-15 (genocidal edict), 4:11,16 (‘against the law’), and 8:8-14 (counter-decree). Must remain lexically and structurally distinct from ‘law_mosaic_divine’ at every occurrence to prevent collapsing Persian civil statute into God’s covenantal Law. Escalates to human theologian review per the qualifier-discipline analogy to the Romans baseline.
Human Favor Court
Approved rendering: kev pom zoo / txaus siab
Transliteration: chen / chesed
Doctrine: Faithfulness in a Foreign Culture; boundary term against Grace and Salvation by Faith Alone (Romans)
Rejected alternatives: txiaj ntsim (grace) used for court favor — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, would blur unmerited salvific grace with ordinary human favoritism
NEW ENTRY. Governs Esther 2:9, 2:15, 2:17 (Esther finding favor with Hegai and the king) and 5:2 (the king’s favorable reception). Explicit cross-reference to the inherited ‘grace’ entry required in all curriculum notes to prevent doctrinal blending.
Genocide Triple Verb Idiom
Approved rendering: muab tua kom tuag tag nrho, ua kom puam tsuaj, thiab rhuav tshem kom tu noob tu nyoog
Transliteration: lehashmid velaharog ule’abbed
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation
Rejected alternatives: softened generic ‘trouble’ or ‘persecution’ vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, collapses the mortal stakes underlying both Deliverance and Courage doctrines
NEW ENTRY. Governs the genocidal edict (3:13) and its later reversed application (7:4; 8:11). Fixed as an atomic triple-clause unit at full length in biblical-text register; a shortened gloss may be used only in secondary summary prose, clearly marked as abbreviated.
Gallows Execution Stake
Approved rendering: tus ncej/pas ntoo tua neeg
Transliteration: etz
Doctrine: Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: Western rope-gallows imagery — rejected as anachronistic; likely a Persian impalement stake
NEW ENTRY. Governs 5:14 (Haman builds it for Mordecai), 6:4 (referenced), and 7:9-10 (Haman’s own execution on it) — the book’s clearest embodied image of Reversal. Lexical/comprehension risk is Medium, but doctrinal significance is High; requires a mandatory clarifying note distinguishing the Persian impalement-stake tradition from anachronistic Western hanging-gallows imagery at every occurrence.
Purim Festival Name
Approved rendering: Purim (transliterated proper noun)
Transliteration: Purim
Doctrine: Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: descriptive functional translation (e.g. a native festival-name gloss) — rejected, would erase the name’s own built-in etymological irony
NEW ENTRY. Governs ch.9’s institution of the festival. Mandatory first-occurrence footnote required in every curriculum module tracing the etymology to ‘lot_pur_divinatory_practice’ and its ironic reversal — the festival’s name preserves, rather than erases, the memory that a pagan divinatory device was overturned by God’s providence, not by the lot’s own power.
Self Defense Killing
Approved rendering: (reuses ordinary kill-vocabulary, contextually framed as authorized self-defense)
Transliteration: harag
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation; Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: triumphalist or vengeance-glorifying framing — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN
NEW ENTRY. Governs ch.9, where the Jews defend themselves under royal permission, reusing the same root as the original genocidal edict (ch.3) but now applied defensively. Primarily a doctrinal-sensitivity flag: content must consistently frame this as defensive deliverance from an existing annihilation order, never glorify violence generally.
Greatness Renown Civil
Approved rendering: nto moo lug / muaj meej mom
Transliteration: gadol
Doctrine: Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation; The Hidden Providence of God
Rejected alternatives: hwjchim (power) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for this referent, would misattribute divine/supernatural power to Mordecai’s ordinary human political prominence
NEW ENTRY. Governs 10:2-3, Mordecai’s elevation to high civil office — a final quiet instance of Reversal. Deliberately avoids the baseline-flagged ‘hwjchim’ lexeme, which structurally requires the ‘Vajtswv’ qualifier precisely because bare hwjchim reads as shamanic ritual power.
Medium Risk Terms
King Ahasuerus
Approved rendering: Huab Tais
Transliteration: melekh (Ahasuerus / Xerxes)
Doctrine: Faithfulness in a Foreign Culture; General/Cross-cutting (frames the whole narrative’s political backdrop)
Rejected alternatives: tus Tswv (Lord) applied to the king — rejected, would confuse absolute Persian civil power with divine lordship
NEW ENTRY. Must remain lexically and structurally distinct from ‘tus Tswv’ at every occurrence (ch.1-10). Comprehension gap only regarding the historical Persian office; no traditional-religion collision.
Golden Scepter
Approved rendering: tus pas kub cim tso cai
Transliteration: sharvit hazahav
Doctrine: Courage and Risk for God’s People
NEW ENTRY. Introduced 4:11 (described), enacted 5:2 (extended to Esther). No native Hmong royal-scepter tradition; comprehension gap only, requiring an explanatory note, not a doctrinal collision.
Escape Personal False Security
Approved rendering: dim (negated: tsis dim)
Transliteration: nimlat / nimlatt
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation
NEW ENTRY. Governs 4:13, where Mordecai negates Esther’s presumed personal safety. Uses the same root dim flagged in the Romans baseline as parallel to shamanic soul-rescue, but here explicitly negated and individualistic; must be kept visibly distinct in context from ‘deliverance_corporate_providential’ (4:14) to prevent readers perceiving a contradiction between the two adjacent verses.
Perish
Approved rendering: puas tsuaj / tuag tas
Transliteration: avad / tovedu
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation
NEW ENTRY. Governs 4:14’s threat to Esther’s household. Ordinary destruction vocabulary; kept distinct in register from the far more theologically loaded emphatic idiom ‘if_i_perish_i_perish’ (4:16).
Fast Religious Abstention
Approved rendering: kev yoo mov
Transliteration: tzumu / tzom
Doctrine: Courage and Risk for God’s People; The Hidden Providence of God
NEW ENTRY. Governs the three-day corporate fast of Esther 4:16. Reuses the existing, stable Hmong Christian term. Mandatory teaching note required distinguishing corporate God-directed appeal (consistent with Hidden Providence framing) from ritual manipulation of ancestral/household spirits, the nearest traditional-religion analogue.
Sackcloth And Ashes
Approved rendering: tsoos khaub ncaws pluag thiab tshauv
Transliteration: saq va’efer
Doctrine: Courage and Risk for God’s People
NEW ENTRY. Governs Mordecai’s mourning posture (4:1). Comprehension bridge to existing Hmong plain/undyed mourning-garment customs; a legitimate cultural parallel, not a collision.
Agagite
Approved rendering: Aka-Kis (transliteration) + explanatory footnote
Transliteration: Agagi
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation
NEW ENTRY. Governs Haman’s ancestral designation (3:1), tracing him to Agag, king of the Amalekites (cf. 1 Samuel 15). Old Testament intertextual reference; comprehension gap only, no traditional-religion collision, but doctrinally important for framing the deliverance as resolution of a centuries-long covenant-enmity pattern.
Honor Civic
Approved rendering: kev hwm / kev qhuas
Transliteration: yeqar
Doctrine: Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation
NEW ENTRY. Governs 6:3-11 (the king’s inquiry and Mordecai’s public honoring). Kept distinct from the inherited ‘glory’ entry (lub yeeb koob), reserved for divine/eschatological splendor; teaching note recommended whenever both terms appear in the same lesson unit.
Signet Ring
Approved rendering: nplhaib cim lus ntawm huab tais
Transliteration: taba’at
Doctrine: Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation
NEW ENTRY. Governs 3:10 (transferred to Haman) and 8:2 (transferred to Mordecai). Comprehension gap only regarding the ancient signet-ring authority-delegation custom; no traditional-religion collision.
Purim Customs Gifts
Approved rendering: kev xa khoom noj rau ib leeg thiab pub rau cov pluag
Transliteration: mishloach manot / mattanot la’evyonim
Doctrine: Reversal (Purim) as a Pattern of Salvation
Rejected alternatives: uncritical equivalence with Hmong New Year gift customs — rejected without an explicit non-equivalence note
NEW ENTRY. Governs 9:22. Comprehension gap only, as no native Hmong equivalent festival custom exists; curriculum writers must avoid implying festival-equivalence, since Purim’s origin in reversed genocide carries unique covenantal weight a generic new-year custom does not share.
Eunuchs Court Officials
Approved rendering: cov nom tswv saib xyuas huab tais lub tsev
Transliteration: saris
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY. Governs 1:10-15; 2:3-15; 4:5; 6:14. Cultural/comprehension gap only; no native Hmong equivalent court office.
Royal Human Wrath
Approved rendering: kev npau taws (human referent only)
Transliteration: chemah / qetsef
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting; boundary term against the inherited ‘wrath_of_god’ entry
NEW ENTRY. Governs 1:12, 2:1, 7:7,10. Must be kept lexically and contextually distinct from the inherited ‘wrath_of_god’ entry (Vajtswv’s righteous judicial wrath); teaching note required whenever royal anger appears.
Conceal Identity
Approved rendering: tsis qhia seb nws yog haiv neeg twg
Transliteration: lo higgidah… et amah
Doctrine: Faithfulness in a Foreign Culture
Rejected alternatives: framing that implies permanent denial of faith-identity as normative — rejected without pairing with Esther’s later open disclosure
NEW ENTRY. Governs 2:10, 2:20. Requires a mandatory teaching note distinguishing strategic, temporary silence for a future purpose from permanent denial of faith-identity, since Esther herself models eventual open, courageous disclosure (4:16, ch.7-8).
Low Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv
Transliteration: theos (Greek LXX Additions only; unnamed in the Hebrew MT)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: Ntuj (impersonal sky/heaven) — rejected, lacks personal deity sense, dab (spirit) — rejected, denotes false/lesser spirit
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Applies only to explicit occurrences in the optional Greek LXX Additions; the Hebrew MT’s deliberate silence about God across all ten chapters of Esther is itself doctrinally load-bearing (Hidden Providence) and must never be filled in by inserting ‘Vajtswv’ into the primary translated narrative text.
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: kyrios (Greek LXX Additions only)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Must remain structurally distinct from the new Esther entry ‘king_ahasuerus’ (Huab Tais) so the Persian monarch’s absolute earthly power is never confused with divine lordship.
Jew
Approved rendering: cov Yudas
Transliteration: Ioudaios / Yehudi
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting; The Future of Israel (Romans) / Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation (Esther)
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Central identity term for the ethnic/covenant community whose annihilation is decreed and reversed across the book.
Glory
Approved rendering: lub yeeb koob
Transliteration: doxa
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting; boundary term for Esther’s civic-honor vocabulary
Inherited from Romans package. Must be kept distinct from the new Esther entry ‘honor_civic’ (Mordecai’s public esteem, ch.6), which denotes ordinary human civic recognition, not divine/eschatological splendor.
Endurance
Approved rendering: kev ua siab ntev
Transliteration: hypomonē
Doctrine: Sanctification and Life in the Spirit (Romans); supporting term for Esther’s Courage doctrine
Inherited from Romans package. Usable as a supporting/adjacent term for the sustained faithfulness of the Jewish community’s waiting/fasting period (ch.2, 4), but must never substitute for the decisive-risk idiom ‘if_i_perish_i_perish’ — endurance under long hardship is not the same courage-concept as a single decisive, mortally risky act.
Queen
Approved rendering: Puj Huab Tais
Transliteration: malkah
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY. Applied to both Vashti (ch.1) and Esther (ch.2 onward). Comprehension-level only.
Mourning Lament
Approved rendering: kev quaj ntsuag
Transliteration: evel / mispēd
Doctrine: Courage and Risk for God’s People
NEW ENTRY. Governs Esther 4:1-3. Reuses standard Hmong funeral-lament vocabulary as a natural, stable bridge term; no collision.
Joy Relief Gladness
Approved rendering: kev muaj kaj lug thiab kev zoo siab
Transliteration: orah vesimchah
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation
NEW ENTRY. Governs 8:16-17. No traditional-religion collision identified.
Fear Dread
Approved rendering: kev ntshai
Transliteration: pachad
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation
NEW ENTRY. Governs 8:17; 9:2-3. Stable, ordinary term; no collision.
Book Of Records
Approved rendering: phau ntawv keeb kwm
Transliteration: sefer divrei hayamim
Doctrine: The Hidden Providence of God
NEW ENTRY. Governs 2:23, 6:1-3, 10:2. Stable descriptive phrase; no collision.
Royal Banquet Feast
Approved rendering: rooj noj rooj haus loj ntawm huab tais
Transliteration: mishteh
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
NEW ENTRY. Recurring structural device opening (ch.1), turning (ch.5,7), and closing (ch.9) the narrative. Stable descriptive phrase; no collision.
Conspiracy Plot
Approved rendering: kev npaj tuag huab tais
Transliteration: qesher
Doctrine: The Hidden Providence of God
NEW ENTRY. Governs 2:21-23, the assassination plot Mordecai uncovers. Stable descriptive phrase; no collision.
Adversary Enemy
Approved rendering: tus yeeb ncuab
Transliteration: tsar / oyev
Doctrine: Deliverance of God’s People from Annihilation
NEW ENTRY. Governs 7:6, Esther’s naming of Haman before the king. Stable existing term; no collision.