[Today’s English Version C.26; Revised Standard Version 14.15]

Rahlfs’ edition of the Septuagint begins a new verse with the words Thou hast knowledge of all things. The Göttingen edition places these words at the end of the previous verse (so also Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Even these translations that follow the Göttingen verse division here, begin a new paragraph with the words Thou hast knowledge of all things, as does Today’s English Version. Translators may choose to follow either form of verse division.

Esther here evokes God’s knowledge of everything, to speak about the most intimate details of human life. In so doing she uses repetition to refer to God’s knowledge, two very strong near synonyms, hate and abhor, to describe her own feelings, and a euphemism, the bed, to refer to her marriage situation.

I hate the splendor of the wicked is literally “I hate the glory of the lawless.” For “glory” see 13.13-14 (C.6-7). The “lawless” are those without nomos. Although the accusation has been made against the Jews, that they have different laws and that they do not respect the laws of the king (3.8), Esther here characterizes the accusers as the “lawless” ones. These are the Gentiles (Today’s English Version). A possible translation model is this: “My heart hates the honor that these people without real law give me.”

Abhor translates the Greek verb that means “to feel nausea, to loath.”

The bed of the uncircumcised and of any alien: the words the bed are a euphemism for sexual intercourse. Though the text does not explicitly state that Esther is talking about marriage, that is no doubt the intended meaning (see Ezra 9.2 and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy cited in the next paragraph). The words the uncircumcised and alien refer to non-Jews, that is “heathen” (so Today’s English Version) or “pagan” (so Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Although Esther generalizes in using the plural forms of the “lawless” and the “uncircumcised” and by saying any alien, the allusion is to the king, to whom she is married.

In this and the following verse, the translator will need to choose words with great care to convey the depth of Esther’s emotions without offending the reader or listener. Perhaps the following may provide helpful models: “I do not approve of marriage with a non-Jew” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente) and “I hate being the wife of a pagan and a foreigner” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). A translation closer to the original is “The bed of a pagan stranger is a thing of loathing for me.”

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 .