They also delivered the king’s commissions: The king’s commissions refer to orders or instructions given by Artaxerxes to Ezra in the text of the letter found in Ezra 7.12-26. Good News Translation makes explicit what is needed for good comprehension by specifying “the document the emperor had given them.”

To the king’s satraps and to the governors of the province Beyond the River: The use of the plural satraps is puzzling here. The word “satrap” is of Persian origin and it occurs only here in Ezra-Nehemiah (see also Est 3.12). A satrap was an appointed government official who was responsible for the large administrative unit that was called a satrapy. The province Beyond the River (see Ezra 4.10) had only one satrap. Some commentators suggest that satraps refer to the local provincial officials with governors given as a synonym of the Persian title (see the comments at Ezra 5.3). Good News Translation follows this understanding. Another suggestion is that it refers to all the satraps in provinces where Jews were living.

They aided the people and the house of God: The Hebrew here uses only one verb with two different objects. Many versions follow the structure of the Hebrew as Revised Standard Version has done (so New English Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible), leaving the exact meaning quite indefinite. Good News Translation says that “support” is given to the people and to the worship that takes place in the Temple. Bible en français courant renders it as “they gave their assistance to the Israelites as regards the temple of God.”

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 .