Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation reflect two different styles and, by implication, two different settings. Revised Standard Version presents family and friends offering counsel, while Good News Translation depicts the giving of casual advice. The translator needs to be consistent in the style that is adopted.
On gallows and hanged see comments on 2.23. The gallows that Haman built was fifty cubits high. A cubit is the length from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, or about forty-five to fifty centimeters (about eighteen inches). The gallows was therefore about twenty-five meters high (seventy-five feet).
Tell the king: the Hebrew says literally “tell the king,” but many versions render it “ask the king” (so Good News Translation, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible).
In today’s English merrily suggests childish behavior. Other translations express a similar idea: “gaily” (New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant); “without a care in the world” (New Jerusalem Bible). But the basic meaning of the Hebrew word is “joyful, rejoicing, happy.” Haman is an important person and he will accompany the king to a dinner prepared by the queen. He should not be described in frivolous terms. His wife and friends give him advice so that he can go to the dinner “in good spirits” (New Revised Standard Version), “happy” (Good News Translation, New International Version), or “joyful” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible).
This counsel: literally “the word,” davar. Good News Translation states in idiomatic language “Haman thought this [suggestion] was a good idea.” The contrast between the tragic fate that is being planned for Mordecai and Haman’s selfish joy is very apparent in this verse.
He had the gallows made: literally “he built the gallows.” Since Haman would not have built the gallows with his own hands, Revised Standard Version restructures and uses a causative construction. Other languages may do the same, perhaps specifying that “he caused his servants to build the gallows.”
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Noss, Philip A. A Handbook on Esther (The Hebrew Text). (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .