In presence of in Hebrew is literally “to the face of.” The meaning is that Memucan spoke “in front of” the king and his officials, or “to the king and his officials” (Good News Translation). Many languages have idioms similar to the Hebrew; for example, “in [to] the eyes of.” However, the translator must take care to avoid using an expression that suggests arrogance or defiance on the part of the speaker.
On the princes see comment on 1.3.
Memucan’s answer to the king is reported also in direct quotation form and takes the emphatic form, Not only … but also…, which is restructured in Good News Translation to maintain and clarify emphasis according to English style (similarly Bible en français courant). To avoid making a sentence that is long and overly complicated, the translator may prefer to divide it into two separate sentences as the New Century Version (New Century Version) has done: “He said, ‘Queen Vashti has not done wrong to the king alone. She has also done wrong to all the important men and all the people in the empire of King Xerxes.’ ” Each language will have its own preferred grammatical structures and emphatic expressions; for example, “Queen Vashti has done wrong toward the king. On the head of that, she has done wrong to all the big people and all the people in all the lands under King Ahasuerus!” In some languages the exclamation point will be represented by an emphatic particle. In translating this verse and the following verses, the translator must remember that Memucan is speaking in the presence of the king and the princes. Courtly protocol must be respected in the form of language used to translate Memucan’s words.
The word peoples is plural because the speaker is referring to all the different ethnic groups in the large Persian Empire. In the light of the following verses, which refer explicitly to husbands, the implicit meaning here is that the Queen has wronged “every man” (so Good News Translation and Bible en français courant). However, since Memucan is emphasizing the seriousness of the queen’s offense by referring to the entire kingdom, it will be better in the receptor language to use a general word for peoples in this verse, as in Revised Standard Version.
In all the provinces of King Ahasuerus refers to the 127 provinces mentioned in 1.1. Good News Translation shortens and combines information by omitting part of the author’s repetition of detail.
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 .