8When the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women.
The Hebrew and Greek that is transliterated as “Esther” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with a sign depicting a star on a crown, referring to her being a queen and her name likely meaning “star” (see here ). (Source: Steve Parkhurst)
The Hebrew and Greek that is mostly translated as “virgin” in English can be translated as “woman that is untouched” in Batak Toba or “a woman with a whole (i.e. unopened) body” in Uab Meto.
“Similar words for ‘girl,’unmarried young woman,’ suggesting virginity without explicitly stating it, are found in Marathi, Apache, or Kituba. Cultural features naturally influence connotations of possible renderings, for instance, the child marriage customs in some Tboli areas, where the boy and girl are made to sleep together at the initial marriage, but after that do not live together and may not see each other again for years. Hence, the closest attainable equivalent, ‘female adolescent,’ does not imply that a young girl is not living with her husband, and that she never had a child, but leaves uncertain whether she has ever slept with a male person or not. Accordingly, in Luke one has to depend on Luke 1:34 to make clear that Mary and Joseph had not had sexual intercourse. A different problem is encountered in Pampanga, where birhen (an adaptation of Spanish virgen — ‘virgin’), when standing alone, is a name of the ‘Virgin Mary.’ To exclude this meaning the version uses “marriageable birhen,” thus at the same time indicating that Mary was relatively young.” (Source: Reiling / Swellengrebel, see here)
In Navajo (Dinė), the term that is used is “no husband yet” (Source: Wallis, p. 106) and in Gola the expression “trouser girl.” “In the distant past young women who were virgins wore trousers. Those who were not virgins wore dresses. That doesn’t hold true anymore, but the expression is still there in the language.” (Source: Don Slager)
The term in Djimini Senoufo is katogo jo — “village-dance-woman” (women who have been promised but who are still allowed to go to dances with unmarried women). (Source: Übersetzung heute 3/1995)
In Igbo translations, typically a newly-created, multi-word phrase is used that very explicitly states that there has not been any sexual relations and that translates as “a woman (or: maiden) who does not know a man.” This is in spite of the fact that there is a term (agb͕ọghọ) that means “young woman” and has the connotation of her not having had sexual relations (this is for instance used by the Standard Igbo Bible of the Bible Society of Nigeria for Isaiah 7:14). Incidentally, the euphemistic expression “know” (ma in Igbo) for “having sex” has become a well-known euphemism outside of Bible translation. (Source: Uchenna Oyali in Sociolinguistic Studies Vol. 17 No. 1-3 (2023): Special Issue: Gender and sexuality in African discourses )
In Chichewa, it is translated as namwali which is used to refer to a girl who has reached puberty stage and is ready to get married. Apart from the physical aspect, the word also has social implications in the sense that it is used to recognize the fact that the girl has become responsible enough to make informed decisions and take care of herself and others. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Esther 2:8:
Kupsabiny: “When what the king said had been announced, the people brought many girls/ladies to come to the home of that king in the city of Susa. Esther was in the group of those girls who were brought. They came and stayed in the hands of Hegai and were put in the house of women at the home of the king.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “When the great king had proclaimed his order, many women were brought to the capitol. Esther was also among them. And she was also one of the women included among the women of the great king in the harem of the royal palace for whom Hegai the eunuch was given responsibility.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When the king’s order about the beautiful not-married-ladies was-proclaimed, many not-married-ladies were-brought to the palace of the king there in the stoned-wall city of Susa. And one of them was Ester. They were-taken-care-of by Hegay who was-assigned to take-care of the females in the palace.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Eastern Bru: “When the rulers received the letter with the new decree, they gathered all the marriageable girls in the city of Susa. But in that group of girls was also Esther. The brought them to the kings house to the place where Hegai watched over all the women in the king’s house.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
English: “After the king commanded that they search for some beautiful women, they brought Esther and many other young women to the king’s palace in Susa, and the king put Hegai/Hegai was put in charge of them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:
Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))
Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:
“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”
Verse 8 picks up the narrative from verse 4 after the interruption of verses 5-7 that introduced Esther and Mordecai. It begins with the Hebrew expression wayyehi (see comments at 1.1) that is rendered in Revised Standard Version as So. Moffatt says “Later on.” This Hebrew word signals the important development of Esther’s being brought into the story. Translators will need to indicate this development in the story by using an appropriate conjunction, transition word or expression, or other discourse markers to pick up the story again. In some languages it will be an expression that indicates a new paragraph, “and then it happened” or “so it was that,” or some languages may have special ways of mentioning the main characters again, perhaps for drawing attention to Esther, for example.
The king’s order and his edict: these are literally “word” (see 1.12, “command”) and “law” (1.8), but Revised Standard Version translates according to context, and Good News Translation restructures the phrase to make the meaning clear without apparent wordiness.
Were proclaimed: literally “when to be heard.” The Hebrew does not state who heard, but the meaning is no doubt that the people in the provinces heard, especially the officers whom the king had appointed (see 2.3).
Many maidens: see comments on verse 2. No specific number of maidens is given, but judging from contemporary historical writings that mention the size of kings’ harems, readers may have understood the number to be several hundred.
Were gathered: literally “when to be gathered.” The Hebrew verb is sometimes intransitive, that is, people simply gather together. Other times it is transitive, that is, someone gathers people together. In light of verse 3, the verb in this context should be understood to be transitive, as in Good News Translation “were being brought” or “were brought” (New Jerusalem Bible). This may be restated in the active voice with an indefinite pronoun as subject, “they gathered many maidens,” or with a noun, “his officials gathered many maidens.”
On Susa the capital see 1.2.
On Hegai and who had charge of the women, see 2.3.
The king’s palace: this is literally “the house of the king.” See 1.9, where the word “house” is also used of the king’s palace.
Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Noss, Philip A. A Handbook on Esther (The Hebrew Text). (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
the king’s command and edict: These two words are very similar in meaning. See 1:20a for edict.
2:8b
citadel of Susa: See note on 1:2.
General Comment about 2:8
As in 2:7, there is some repetition in this verse, so you may need to rearrange the verse as Good News Translation has done:
When the king had issued his new proclamation and many young women were being brought to Susa, Esther was among them. She too was put in the royal palace in the care of Hegai, who had charge of the harem. (Good News Translation)
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