Hebrew word · H143

אֲדָר

'adar

Adar

Name of the twelfth month, late winter (about February–March). It comes from Babylonian Addaru, one of the month names Jews adopted during and after the exile.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Adar = "glorious"

twelfth month, corresponding to modern March-April

Also named: a.dar (אֲדָר "Adar" H0144)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Esther 3:13

Range of meaning

Name of the twelfth month, late winter (about February–March). It comes from Babylonian Addaru, one of the month names Jews adopted during and after the exile.

Against the English

No real drift. Translations differ only in whether they say 'twelfth month' or 'Adar' first.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezra 6:15 (the Second Temple completed on 3 Adar). It appears in Babylonian and Persian-period documents. 1 Maccabees 7:43–49 and 2 Maccabees 15:36 make 13 Adar 'Nicanor's Day', which 2 Maccabees calls 'the day before Mordecai's day', showing that the Purim dates were known by the 2nd–1st century BCE.

From the study of Esther 9:17

Range of meaning

The name of the twelfth month, roughly February–March. It is borrowed from Babylonian Addaru.

Against the English

Most versions keep "Adar." NLT converts the dates to modern calendar dates. That is helpful, but the Jewish calendar follows the moon, so Adar moves against the solar calendar from year to year.

Used elsewhere in the period

Found only in post-exilic books: Ezra 6:15 (the Second Temple finished on 3 Adar) and Esther (3:7, 13; 8:12; 9:1, 15, 17, 19, 21). Before the exile, Israel mostly numbered its months or used Canaanite names. The Babylonian names (Nisan, Kislev, Adar…) came in during and after the exile. 2 Maccabees 15:36 calls the 14th of Adar "the day of Mordecai."

Where it appears

Esther · 8

  1. Esther 3:7 אֲדָֽר׃ ס Adar

    In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman to determine a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

  2. Esther 3:13 אֲדָ֑ר Adar

    And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.

    Here: The Babylonian month name Addaru (late winter, about February–March), used by Jews after the exile. It is the month the lot fell on (3:7), and Purim keeps its name.

  3. Esther 8:12 אֲדָֽר׃ Adar

    The single day appointed throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

    Here: The Babylonian month name Addaru (about February–March), taken over by Jews after the exile. In the story it becomes the month of Purim.

  4. Esther 9:1 אֲדָ֗ר Adar

    On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the king’s command and edict were to be executed. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but their plan was overturned and the Jews overpowered those who hated them.

    Here: The Babylonian month Addaru, roughly February–March. This is the month Haman's lot had picked out for the Jews' destruction (3:7).

  5. Esther 9:15 אֲדָ֔ר Adar

    On the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, the Jews in Susa came together again and put to death three hundred men there, but they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

    Here: Adar, the twelfth month (roughly February–March). The name comes from the Babylonian calendar (Addaru), which Jews adopted after the exile. It was the month Haman's lot had picked for the slaughter (3:7, 13).

  6. Esther 9:17 אֲדָ֑ר Adar

    This was done on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested, making it a day of feasting and joy.

    Here: The twelfth and last month of the year, roughly February–March. The name comes from the Babylonian calendar that Jews used after the exile.

  7. Esther 9:19 אֲדָ֔ר Adar

    This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts to one another.

    Here: The twelfth month, roughly February–March. The name was taken over from the Babylonian calendar (Addaru), as the Jews of the exile and after it did with all their month names.

  8. Esther 9:21 אֲדָ֔ר Adar

    to establish among them an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.