[Today’s English Version F.10; Revised Standard Version 10.13]

They will observe refers to the Jewish people, translated in Today’s English Version as “God’s people” and in Biblia Dios Habla Hoy as “the Israelites.” The Jews were instructed “to keep, to hold, to set aside” these two days (see 9.21).

In the month of Adar … of that month: the implicit meaning is that Purim is to be celebrated “each year” (Today’s English Version). Regarding Adar see comment on 3.7.

Before God is a Hebrew expression which means that the people will celebrate with an awareness of God’s presence. It is to be a religious celebration (so Nueva Biblia Española “as a religious festival”). The celebration was to include three elements: assembly and joy and gladness. The last two nouns describe the spirit that is to characterize the celebration. They are near synonyms, the first referring to a heartfelt emotion of rejoicing, the second depicting a more outward sense of merriment or festivity (see also the use of “gladness” for both Greek terms as they appear in 9.22).

From generation to generation for ever is an emphatic manner of stating that this is something that the Jewish people are never to stop doing. This may be stated “from descendant to descendant through the ages” (see comments on 9.27, 28). The concept of time is carried here from the precision of past events through successive generations into the unending future. For for ever some languages say simply “always,” while others are able to emphasize in some way that this will never end; for example, “always and always,” “again and even again,” or perhaps an ideophone that indicates duration without end.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Noss, Philip A. A Handbook on the Book of Esther — Deuterocanon: The Greek Text. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .