Hired counselors against them: The counselors referred to are Persian government officers who are literally hired to break up the Jewish plan. New English Bible calls them “officials at court,” while New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “ministers.” “To hire” is to pay money to someone for their services. Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Jerusalem Bible and other versions interpret this as bribery; that is, they paid the government officials to do something that was not right for them to do (see Neh 6.12).

The second of the two ideas expressed in the Hebrew here is conveyed in Revised Standard Version as to frustrate their purpose and in Good News Translation as “to work against them.” The concept of working against or in opposition to the Jews is explicit in the text, as is the effort to prevent their plan from succeeding. No examples are given of how these tactics were carried out to make their plan fail. There is a play on words in the Hebrew because the word for counselors is formed from the same root as the word translated as purpose. In the Hebrew they bribed “counselors” to make the “counsel” of the Jews fail (so Chouraqui), but most translators will not be able to imitate the pun. Osty-Trinquet expresses both ideas as follows: “they hired against them counselors to make their plan fail.”

All the days of Cyrus king of Persia; that is, “the days of the rule of Cyrus over Persia” or “the time of the kingdom of….” This can also be restructured “during all the time that King Cyrus ruled over Persia.”

Even until the reign of Darius king of Persia: The length of time spoken of here extended not only until the time when Darius became king, but as Good News Translation makes clear, it went “into” his reign. King Darius of Persia ruled from 521 to 486 B.C. following the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses.

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 .