Today’s English Version restructures this verse breaking it into four sentences. This makes reading easier, but it may also change the focus of the original text, which reads All … know that … there is but one law; … to be put to death, except the one …. Focusing in this way on the law, dat, Esther’s words again emphasize the importance of the law in Persian culture and in the author’s story. This is one of the artist’s methods of building the drama of the story (see 1.15, 19 above).

The inner court of the palace is the place where one could see the king on his throne (5.1), in contrast to the outer court (see 6.4), where the king could not be seen.

There is but one law: literally “one law of him.” New International Version says “the king has but one law.” That law is that anyone who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned by the king is to be killed.

Holds out the golden scepter: Biblia Dios Habla Hoy makes explicit the meaning of this gesture by adding the words “as a sign of clemency.” The golden scepter, a symbol of the king’s authority, was a long, slender staff made of gold, with an ornamented head. Where scepters are unknown, one may say the “king’s stick,” the “stick of kingship,” or the “object in the king’s hand showing authority.” It may be described as a “staff [made, or forged] of gold.”

That he may live: this may be restated as “so that that person will not be killed” (compare Today’s English Version).

At the beginning of the last sentence, the Hebrew contains the first person singular pronoun, which has an emphatic function. Neither Revised Standard Version nor Today’s English Version represents this, but Traduction œcuménique de la Bible reproduces the force by saying “As for me, it has been thirty days since….” Translators should follow the example of Bible en français courant or Traduction œcuménique de la Bible if possible.

These thirty days: no reason is given in the story to explain why the king has not called for Esther for an entire month, but such a detail heightens the dramatic tension, as Esther must now risk her life to enter the inner court to speak to him. Depending on cultural practice, the length of time may be indicated by days, as the Hebrew does (so Revised Standard Version), or it may be represented as a month, or even as weeks, if that is more natural.

Septuagint 4.11

Since Esther’s words to Hachratheus were given in direct form in the preceding verse, the quotation in this verse is a second level of quotation; it is a quote within a quote. Today’s English Version, however, restructures the quotation in verse 10 to be a non-quotation, so that the quotation in this verse may be a simple first-level direct quotation. Translators may choose either way of dealing with the quotation.

The Greek lacks the words “all the king’s servants” and mentions only the nations of the empire. The Today’s English Version translation “Everyone in the empire” makes clear that it is people who know and not nations who know. The Today’s English Version translation, however, lacks the idea that the empire consists of separate nations or ethnic groups. Perhaps a better translation will be “everyone in all the nations of the empire.”

There is no escape for that person is literally “there is not for him salvation [or, deliverance].” There is no hope of “safety” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), “he is destined for a certain death” (Bible en français courant). Only the person to whom the king extends his scepter “will be saved” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible).

The translator may note that in the original Greek text there is no explicit mention of the law as there is in the Hebrew version. Esther’s concluding comment is very powerful as she draws attention to her own situation by using the emphatic conjunction plus full pronoun “and I” at the beginning of the statement. In some languages this may be expressed “As for me, it is now thirty days….” See the comments on the similar emphatic construction in the Hebrew text of this verse.

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 .