Take care not to be slack in this matter: The king makes the provincial officials responsible to carry out the order. He orders them to “Be careful” (New International Version) not to be negligent in it. This may be translated “Absolutely do not fail to do this” or “Look to yourselves that you do not leave this undone!” Some languages have sentence final particles that give emphasis to commands and other strong statements that could be used here by translators.

Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king?: The king ends his letter with this rhetorical question in which he seems to agree with the thoughts expressed in the letter to him (see verse 13). By asking the question, he is making a strong statement that “harm” should not be done to his “interests” (Good News Translation). To the hurt means “to cause loss.” The king is plural in Aramaic, so some versions render it “the kings” (Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Chouraqui), “the monarchy” (New English Bible), “the royal house” (Revised English Bible), or “the royal interests” (New International Version). The people to whom the king is writing the letter are not to allow the income from taxes and his honor to suffer by what happens in Jerusalem.

Contemporary English Version restructures the verse to state it in the form of an affirmative imperative: “Do this right now, so that no harm will come to the kingdom.”

Some languages may want to indicate that the letter ends here.

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 .