Third year: about 483 B.C.
Of his reign: in some languages it may be more natural to use a verbal construction such as “after he became king” or “after he began to rule.”
The word banquet comes from the root word meaning “to drink” and is used in Esther to indicate eating and drinking on special occasions. The translator should use a word for a formal meal, a meal eaten during a festive event. Here banquet refers to festivities or a celebration that continued for 180 days.
Various groups of people were present at the banquet that the king gave in the third year of his reign. Princes and servants are probably government “officials” and “courtiers” (Revised English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible), though the variety of translations of these two words indicates uncertainty as to their precise meaning: “officers and ministers” (New American Bible), “officers-of-state and ministers” (New Jerusalem Bible). In many languages princes will suggest a hereditary royal title, that of the king’s sons; this is not the meaning here. It will be better to use a word such as “governor” or “official.” The words the army chiefs of Persia and Media are literally “the army” (so Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Many interpreters find it impossible to think that the author of Esther could have meant the entire army that consisted of some 14,000 men, according to the ancient historian Herodotus. Therefore some translations insert the words “the commanders of” or “the officers of” before the army (An American Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, Bible en français courant, Nueva Biblia Española). Some support for this latter view comes from the Septuagint translation, which may be based on a corrupted form of the Hebrew word for “officers.”
Another possible solution is to understand the word the army to be in apposition to the words princes and servants. According to this interpretation the writer refers to the entire army by mentioning only the leaders, the princes, and servants. Following this view FOX translates “all his princes and servants, the forces of Persia and Media.”
Since the Hebrew word translated as the army chiefs may also refer to wealthy landowners, another possible solution that is followed by several translations is to translate the Hebrew term, not with the word “army,” but rather as “aristocracy” or “nobility”: “the Persian and Median aristocracy, the nobles, and the governors of the provinces” (New American Bible; so also New Jerusalem Bible). Any of the above interpretations is possible, and translators must choose one.
Persia was an empire that came into existence about 550 B.C., when King Cyrus the Great defeated the Medes. The empire stretched from Greece in the west to India in the east and lasted until the time of Alexander the Great (about 330 B.C.). Media was a province within the Persian Empire. Media’s capital, Ecbatana, was one of the administrative centers of the Persian Empire (see Ezra 6.2).
The names Persia and Media occur in this same order in 1.3, 14, 18, 19. Only in 10.2 is the order reversed, that is, “Media and Persia.” Various suggestions have been given to explain the change in word order in 10.2, including that a different writer was responsible for chapter 10. Although the reason for the order of these two names does not seem to be important, the translator should retain the order given in the Hebrew text, unless there is some strong reason in the receptor language for not doing so.
The nobles and governors of the provinces: the word translated as nobles was originally a Persian word. The word translated as governors is the same word translated as princes earlier in this same verse. Nearly all translations take the words of the provinces with both nobles and governors. It is, however, possible to connect of the provinces with the last noun only, as Nueva Biblia Española does: “the nobility of the palace and the governors of the provinces.” Such an interpretation may also lie behind the Revised English Bible translation “along with his nobles and provincial rulers.” Either interpretation is possible, and translators must choose one.
Being before him: the Hebrew expression “before his face” means that the guests were gathered in the king’s presence. They were “present,” as Good News Translation says. Some languages will be able to use a similar idiom, “they were before his eyes,” for example.
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 .