Good News Translation restructures this verse breaking it into four sentences. This makes reading easier, but it may also change the focus of the original text, which reads All … know that … there is but one law; … to be put to death, except the one …. Focusing in this way on the law, dat, Esther’s words again emphasize the importance of the law in Persian culture and in the author’s story. This is one of the artist’s methods of building the drama of the story (see 1.15, 19 above).
The inner court of the palace is the place where one could see the king on his throne (5.1), in contrast to the outer court (see 6.4), where the king could not be seen.
There is but one law: literally “one law of him.” New International Version says “the king has but one law.” That law is that anyone who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned by the king is to be killed.
Holds out the golden scepter: Biblia Dios Habla Hoy makes explicit the meaning of this gesture by adding the words “as a sign of clemency.” The golden scepter, a symbol of the king’s authority, was a long, slender staff made of gold, with an ornamented head. Where scepters are unknown, one may say the “king’s stick,” the “stick of kingship,” or the “object in the king’s hand showing authority.” It may be described as a “staff [made, or forged] of gold.”
That he may live: this may be restated as “so that that person will not be killed” (compare Good News Translation).
At the beginning of the last sentence, the Hebrew contains the first person singular pronoun, which has an emphatic function. Neither Revised Standard Version nor Good News Translation represents this, but Traduction œcuménique de la Bible reproduces the force by saying “As for me, it has been thirty days since….” Translators should follow the example of Bible en français courant or Traduction œcuménique de la Bible if possible.
These thirty days: no reason is given in the story to explain why the king has not called for Esther for an entire month, but such a detail heightens the dramatic tension, as Esther must now risk her life to enter the inner court to speak to him. Depending on cultural practice, the length of time may be indicated by days, as the Hebrew does (so Revised Standard Version), or it may be represented as a month, or even as weeks, if that is more natural.
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 .