India

India appears in the Old Testament only in Esther 1:1 and 8:9, where it marks the eastern boundary of the empire of Ahasuerus (Xerxes): the kingdom extended "from India even unto Ethiopia" — a phrase indicating the vast reach of Persian dominion from the Indus Valley in the east to the Nile watershed in the west. The Hebrew Hoddu corresponds to the Persian Hindush, which referred to the territory of the Indus River region, roughly equivalent to the Sindh province of modern Pakistan.

The mention of India in Esther is geographical rather than narrative — it frames the scope of the empire within which the events of the book unfold, establishing that Jews of the diaspora were dispersed across the full extent of the known world of that era. Some ancient traditions connect the Ophir of Solomon's trading voyages with the Indian subcontinent (1 Kings 10:22; Ezekiel 27:15, 24), associating the trade in gold, ivory, and peacocks with Indian commerce, though Ophir's precise location remains debated.