The intended meaning of the words The money is given to you is not clear. They may mean “Since it is your money, it is your decision to put the money into the royal treasury. That is all right with me,” in which case the king was actually accepting the money. In support of this view, one may note that Esther tells the king in 7.4 that the Jews have been “sold,” though “sold” may mean only “delivered over.” Mordecai apparently believed that the king had accepted the money (see 4.7).

The Septuagint says “Keep the money.” Several translations either follow the text of the Septuagint or interpret the Hebrew text to have that meaning (see New American Bible, “The silver you may keep … but as for this people, do with them whatever you please,” and Revised English Bible, “Keep the money … and deal with the people as you think best”). The translators of Good News Translation apparently considered the money that Haman intended to place in the king’s treasuries to be booty that was to be taken from the Jews who were to be destroyed. In agreement with that interpretation the money is translated as “their money” in Good News Translation (also Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Contemporary English Version).

The identity of the people should not be made explicit in translation (see 3.8, “a certain people”), since later, when the king honors “Mordecai the Jew” (6.10), he seems not to identify Mordecai with the people who were to be destroyed.

As it seems good to you: many languages will have an idiom similar to the Hebrew, which is literally “as good in your eyes.”

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 .