Hebrew word · H323

אֲחַשְׁדַּרְפַּן

'achashdarpenei-

satrap

A loanword from Old Persian xšaçapāvan, 'protector of the realm'. It means a satrap, the viceroy over one of the empire's great regional units. Used only in late books: Ezra 8:36; Esth 3:12; 8:9; 9:3; and in Aramaic form in Daniel.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

satrap, a governor of a Persian province

Aramaic equivalent: a.chash.dar.pan (אֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנִין "satrap" H0324)

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 3:12

Range of meaning

A loanword from Old Persian xšaçapāvan, 'protector of the realm'. It means a satrap, the viceroy over one of the empire's great regional units. Used only in late books: Ezra 8:36; Esth 3:12; 8:9; 9:3; and in Aramaic form in Daniel.

Against the English

BSB, NIV, ESV and NASB keep 'satraps'. KJV's 'lieutenants' uses an older sense (one who holds a place for another, a deputy), but today readers hear a military rank. NLT flattens the three tiers into general 'officials'.

How it drifted

'Lieutenant' in 1611 meant a deputy ruling in the sovereign's place, and only later mainly a junior officer.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek historians write the title as satrapēs. Herodotus (3.89) describes Darius organising some twenty satrapies (great regional units). The Old Persian word appears in Darius's Behistun inscription.

Where it appears

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 8:36 לַאֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנֵי֙ to [the] satraps of

    They also delivered the king’s edicts to the royal satraps and governors of the region west of the Euphrates, who proceeded to assist the people and the house of God.

Esther · 3

  1. Esther 3:12 אֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנֵֽי־ [the] satraps of

    On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.

    Here: A Persian loanword for the great regional viceroys (satraps), the top tier of imperial government.

  2. Esther 8:9 הָאֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנִֽים־ the satraps

    At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush—writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

  3. Esther 9:3 וְהָאֲחַשְׁדַּרְפְּנִ֣ים and the satraps

    And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and the king’s administrators helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.

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