In two rhetorical questions, Esther personalizes the tragedy that she wishes to avert. Using two pairs of near synonyms, calamity and destruction, and people and kindred, the author heightens the drama of the scene. Good News Translation has restructured to form one sentence, thereby avoiding the apparent redundancy of two questions. The translator will need to consider the rules of dramatic literature in the receptor language to determine how to express Esther’s emotional plea.

Endure to see: the verb rendered “endure” most frequently means “to be able” in the Old Testament. It may also mean “to bear” or “to endure.” Compare New Jerusalem Bible: “For how can I bear to see the disaster…! And how can I bear to see the destruction…!” This may be stated as a negative in some languages. New Century Version, for example, says “I could not stand to see that terrible thing happen to my people. I could not stand to see my family killed.” In some languages rhetorical questions will express Esther’s emotion: “How could I see such a powerful bad thing fall on my people? How could I see the death of my family?”

Calamity … destruction: the first of these words is raʿah, which was used to describe Haman’s own situation (see 7.7). The second word, destruction, is the noun form of one of the three verbs that were used in the letters that were sent throughout the kingdom regarding the fate intended for the Jews (see 3.13, where the verb form is translated “to annihilate” in Revised Standard Version).

On my people and my kindred, see the comments on 2.10, 20.

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 .