[Today’s English Version A.5; Revised Standard Version 11.6]
The Greek word translated as dragons refers to a large, ferocious animal, but the precise animal intended is not clear. Elsewhere in the Septuagint, the same Greek word refers to land animals such as wolves or jackals and snakes, as well as to sea creatures and creatures of mythology. In translations of Rev 12.3, in a virtually identical construction with kai idou, this same word is often interpreted as “dragon.” Many languages have a mythical dragon-like creature that may be appropriate here. Alternatively the two dragons may be described as “great serpent-like creatures” or possibly “great lizard-like animals.” They should not be called “lions” or “tigers.”
The verb rendered came forward means in general “to approach” or “to come to.” The sense does not seem to be that the two dragons approached each other. Rather they “appeared” (Revised English Bible, Today’s English Version, Nueva Biblia Española) on the scene in Mordecai’s dream. Compare Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente “At a certain point [in his dream] Mordecai saw two great dragons come forward.” Some languages will use two verbs together to express a single idea; for example, “two great dragons arrived stood.”
Though the text says only that the great dragons were both ready to fight, translators may want to make explicit that they were “ready to fight each other” (so Today’s English Version, Revised English Bible, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, La Sainte Bible: La version Etablie par les moines de Maredsous; see Addition F, which identifies the two dragons as Haman and Mordecai).
Literally the voice or the cry of the dragons is described as “great,” but the context indicates that it was a terrible roar or a “dreadful noise” (Today’s English Version, A.6).
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 .