esar

אֱסָר is the Biblical Aramaic noun from the root אסר "to bind," cognate with Hebrew אִסָּר of Numbers 30, and it occurs seven times, all within the Darius narrative of Daniel 6 (English 6:7, 8, 9, 12 twice, 13, 15; MT 6:8, 9, 10, 13 twice, 14, 16). BDB, HALOT (the Aramaic volume) and Vogt's Lexicon of Biblical Aramaic converge on the sense "interdict, prohibition," that is, a binding ban rather than a positive ordinance, and the chapter itself distinguishes it from קְיָם (a statute the king establishes, with which it is paired in 6:7 and 6:15), דָּת (the fixed law of the Medes and Persians) and טְעֵם (an administrative order). It is governed throughout by רְשַׁם "to inscribe, sign," and once by the causative of תקף "to make strong," so that the ban's force is tied to a signed and strengthened document; the shift from absolute to determined state across 6:7 to 6:9 tracks the ban's move from a proposal to the known instrument. Montgomery (ICC) and Collins (Hermeneia) read the accompanying irrevocability motif, the law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be altered, as a literary convention of the Aramaic court tales shared with Esther 1:19 and 8:8 rather than as documented Achaemenid legal procedure, and Goldingay takes it as characterizing the rigidity of absolute pagan rule. TDOT treats the whole root under אָסַר, noting that the Aramaic noun reverses the direction of the Hebrew usage: the obligation is imposed by a superior on subjects rather than assumed by a person for themselves.