Esther 8.9 is the longest verse in The Writings, the third major division of the Hebrew Bible. Today’s English Version restructures the extended Hebrew sentence into three separate sentences. The first sentence specifies the time, the second explains what Mordecai did, and the third describes the letters. This verse is similar to 3.12, but it also repeats details from 1.1 and 1.22 (see 1.1, 22 and 3.12 for comments that need not be repeated here). The author’s use of repetition from earlier verses should be seen as a deliberate stylistic device. Therefore translators should not feel obliged to vary the style and the wording merely because something appears to be repetitive.

The writing of the edict by Mordecai took place on the twenty-third day of Sivan, that is, two months and ten days after Haman’s decree in 3.12-14. Sivan was the third month in the Babylonian calendar and corresponds to May–June (see the calendar illustration, page 97). This means that the events of 4.1–8.2 fit into a period of two months and ten days. Regarding the seventy-day period between the writing of the two decrees by Haman and Mordecai, the writer does not indicate that seventy has any special significance. Possibly he intended for the postexilic Jewish readers to see an allusion to the seventy years of exile (see Jer 25.11-12; 29.10), that is, Haman’s decree leads them into danger (the equivalent of exile), while Mordecai’s decree leads them out of danger.

The twenty-third day: for comment on writing numbers, see 1.1-2 above.

Although Revised Standard Version refers to an edict, the original text does not give a name to what was written. The text can also be translated “all that Mordecai said concerning the Jews was written….”

Concerning the Jews may be translated “to the Jews” (so Today’s English Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and most translations), as the end of the verse makes clear. However, some interpreters think that the end of the verse is redundant if the writer has already said at the beginning of the verse that the edict was written “to the Jews.” Translators may follow the interpretation used in the translation they have adopted as a base. The alternative may be put in a footnote.

Septuagint 8.9

The secretaries are the general class of scribes of 3.12 and not the personal secretary of Septuagint 6.1. Rather than the “third month, the month of Sivan” as in the Hebrew, the Septuagint says the first month, that is, Nisan, in the same year. The Septuagint omits “and to the Jews in their language and system of writing” at the end of the verse. The words may have seemed unnecessary, since the Septuagint more clearly than the Hebrew says to the Jews at the beginning of the verse. The Septuagint also does not state directly that the letters were written at Mordecai’s command—only that they were written.

New Revised Standard Version contains an error in some printings. The text should not read “from Media to Ethiopia” but “from India to Ethiopia.”

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 .