[Today’s English Version C.1; Revised Standard Version 13.8]

Mordecai prayed to the Lord: the Greek is literally “he prayed,” but many translations make explicit the name Mordecai. For discussion of Lord see Septuagint 4.8.

Calling to remembrance is an old-fashioned English expression for which Today’s English Version gives an idiomatic modern equivalent. The meaning is that Mordecai thought about what God had done. Thus one can render it “remembering” or “thinking about.” Although the Greek does not arrange the thinking and the praying in the order in which they happen, it may be helpful to restructure as Bible en français courant has done: “Mordecai remembered all the deeds that the Lord had accomplished, and he addressed this prayer to him.”

All the works of the Lord refers to what God has done in the past for the Jewish people. These are not specific tasks, but all God’s deeds on behalf of his people throughout history. So Today’s English Version adds the words “in the past.”

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 .