If anyone did not come within three days: This introduces a condition. If something did not take place, then a specific result would follow. Three days were a sufficient length of time for the people to come from an area that extended no more than 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Jerusalem. The assumption is that the people would travel by day to arrive in Jerusalem no later than the third day. In some cultures it is more common to describe the passage of time in terms of nights, in which case this would be rendered “three nights,” for example, “if anyone did not arrive within [a period of] three nights.”

By order of the officials and the elders: The officials were those mentioned in Ezra 9.1 and the elders were lay authorities at a lower administrative level. A different interpretation is offered by New English Bible, which translates “it should be within the discretion of the chief officers and the elders.” The translator should follow the more common rendering as given in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. This may be translated “according to the summons of…” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible) or “as decided by…” (Revised English Bible).

There were two penalties for any person not coming to this assembly: all his property should be forfeited and he himself banned from the congregation of the exiles. The Hebrew word for forfeited (haram) was used for things that had been devoted to God and that were either to be destroyed or to be used in the Temple. 1 Esdras 9.4 and Josephus indicate that on this occasion what was forfeited was to become the property of the Temple. Banned, which is literally “separated,” meant that the people were not to be allowed at the Temple services and they would lose their rights as citizens. They would be ostracized from the congregation (see verse 1 above, where Revised Standard Version has “assembly” for the same Hebrew word). They would be excluded from the group of those who had returned from exile, and would be regarded as foreigners. The right to impose these penalties was given to Ezra by the Persian king (see Ezra 7.26).

In some languages it will be necessary to restructure this verse and the preceding one because of the implied quotation; that is, the message is given in a form of indirect quotation. The direct words of the proclamation are not cited, only the content. The translator should use what is appropriate in the receptor language. This may be an announcement of the proclamation followed by the content in indirect quotation as in Contemporary English Version: “7-8 The officials and leaders sent a message … It told them….” Or a non-quotation followed by an indirect quotation may be used, for example: “7 They sent a message … for the people to gather … 8 They said that if anyone did not come within three days….” Revised English Bible uses a non-quotation for the order in verse 7 and an indirect quotation for the conditional sentence in verse 8.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .