[Today’s English Version A.7; Revised Standard Version 11.8]

The language of this verse reflects the influence of Joel 2.2, 10-11 and Zeph 1.15. The words darkness and gloom are basically synonymous in meaning, as are the other two pairs of nouns in this verse. The stylistic device of using near synonyms is found frequently in the Hebrew version of Esther. Darkness renders a general term used of the absence of light. It may be the darkness of the ocean bottom or the darkness caused by the absence of sunlight. Here it seems to represent the darkness of chaos. The noun gloom renders a synonym with no apparent distinction in meaning. If separate terms cannot be found in the receptor language for these two Greek terms, translations may follow the model of Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente: “then a thick darkness descended,” that is, “very great darkness.”

Tribulation and distress: these two terms are also synonyms, and a comparison of different versions reveals an overlap in meaning. The first noun is used of trouble involving direct suffering, and it may be translated “trouble and suffering” or “persecution.” The second noun suggests that people will experience difficult circumstances, including certain restrictions on what they can do. This may be rendered “people will be in trouble.” Revised English Bible says “distress and anguish,” and New Jerusalem Bible says “affliction and distress.”

Affliction and great tumult: the first noun may be rendered “mistreatment” or “oppression.” It includes as a part of its meaning the idea of harm or injury to someone. Tumult: see the comments on this noun in 11.5 (A.4).

The structure and dramatic impact of this verse are similar to those of 11.5 (A.4). There is no verb, only a series of nouns to picture what Mordecai sees in his dream. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible again captures the staccato effect of the Greek by using poetic form:

Here [was] a day of darkness and gloom,
Distress and anxiety,
Oppression and great confusion on the earth.

The focus in these lines is the day and what this day brought to the earth. The translator may capture the vivid drama of the original by using emphatic particles and perhaps by restating, for example, “Here [or, See], it was a day of…!”

It may be noted that various forms of the word “great” occur in these first verses: Artaxerxes the Great, Mordecai was great, the dragons were great, their roar was great, and in the climax to the description of the day in Mordecai’s dream, there was “great confusion” on the earth. The repetition of “great” makes it very clear that an event is being portrayed which is quite out of the ordinary.

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 .