[Today’s English Version B.1; Revised Standard Version 13.1]
The entire contents of this Addition are the message or the letter sent by the king throughout his empire. Both Revised Standard Version and Today’s English Version use a colon early in the verse to set off the author’s introduction to the letter from the king’s introduction that is the beginning of the letter itself. At the end of the verse, Revised Standard Version and Today’s English Version use a second colon to mark the end of the king’s introduction and the beginning of the main text. The translator may need to restructure and use punctuation that is appropriate to the discourse structure of the receptor language.
The style of the letter is that of an official document, which begins with the identification of the sender. The king identifies himself formally by title and by name, The Great King, Artaxerxes. In many languages this title can be translated simply as “Big King Artaxerxes” or “Great Master of the Land Artaxerxes.” A difference should be maintained in translation between this title and the epithet “Artaxerxes the Great” (16.1 [E.1]), if possible. This, rather than “Xerxes,” is the name of the Persian king throughout the Greek text. Following the introduction in this verse is the text of the king’s message, which begins in verse 2.
In the Greek text the king writes in the first person singular in verses 2-3. Then the style shifts in verses 4-7 to the first person plural. Interpreters must decide whether the shift to the plural indicates that the king now includes his advisers also, or whether the plural is an epistolary plural, that is, a polite form of referring to oneself. Translators should normally follow receptor culture practice in rendering the king’s words. If they decide that the plural is an epistolary plural, they may follow the example of several common language translations that use the first person singular in verses 4-6 (Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). The same problem occurs in translating the king’s decree in Addition E, which follows 8.12.
A copy of the letter: this may also be translated “This is the text of the letter” (so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible; see also Bible en français courant). Today’s English Version emphasizes the legal character of the message, twice identifying it as a “decree,” but that information may preferably be left implicit.
On the hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia, see 1.1.
On the rulers of the … provinces, see 1.1. The governors under them (under the rulers of the provinces) translates a Greek word that referred to a district governor. New Jerusalem Bible says “and to their subordinate district commissioners” (also Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). The words under them translate a Greek masculine plural participle that is more literally “the ones being subordinate.” The pronoun them is not in the Greek text. Nearly all interpreters understand this participle to describe only the word the governors, that is, the governors who are subordinate to the rulers of the provinces. It is possible, however, that this participle describes both the rulers and the governors, that is, “The Great King Artaxerxes to the rulers and governors, his subjects” (La Bible Pléiade). However, since most translations agree with the interpretation found in Revised Standard Version and Today’s English Version, translators may prefer to follow them here.
Ethiopia: see comments on 1.1.
Writes thus: with these words Revised Standard Version introduces the main content of the letter that follows in the next verses. This should not be interpreted as leading the way to a quotation within a quotation, for it is all one letter.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Noss, Philip A. A Handbook on the Book of Esther — Deuterocanon: The Greek Text. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .