If it please the king: the author maintains the formal style of court language (see comments on 1.19). Although it uses the formal title “Your Majesty,” Good News Translation‘s style is informal and even casual.
That they be destroyed: Haman avoids saying who should destroy the Jews. In some languages where passive verb constructions are not used, it may be necessary to say that “the people” in general or “the other peoples of your kingdom” should destroy the Jews. In some languages it may be possible to restructure the sentence and use the third person indefinite plural pronoun: “they should destroy this certain people.”
Ten thousand talents of silver represents an enormous sum of money. A talent was about 35 kilograms (75 pounds). Ten thousand talents equals approximately 300 metric tons (see Bible en français courant, Nueva Biblia Española) or 375 tons (Good News Translation). The text does not say from where Haman was going to obtain this money, whether from his own resources or from the booty that was to be taken from the Jews who were to be killed.
How to express this amount of silver or its value is a decision for the translators to make. The value may be stated in modern terms, but monetary values fluctuate and quickly become out of date. Measuring it in tons may seem incongruous if tons are normally used for the weight of things such as cement. It may be best to maintain the original quantity, using a general term for money, and give a note to explain that this was the largest unit of money at the time and the highest number in the counting system of the time.
Silver is called “white metal” or “white wealth” in some languages. Sometimes a borrowed term is used; for example, “silva” from the English “silver.”
Into the hands of those who have charge of the king’s business: literally “into the hands of the ones doing the business [or, work] of the king.” The same expression occurs in 1 Kgs 11.28 and 2 Kgs 12.11 (12.12 in the Hebrew). The precise nature of “the business” is not clear. Gordis says “into the hands of those working on royal projects,” by which he means building projects such as the capital city of Persepolis. FOX translates this clause “to the executive officers” and suggests that these may have been revenue officials. Since the precise nature of their work is unknown, translators should use a general expression such as the king’s business or “the men who carry out this business” (New International Version).
The king’s treasuries were the official state coffers. “Where the king put the money” or “the place for the king’s money” may be said, or an equivalent compound construction. The Hebrew word translated treasuries is a word of Persian origin (see introduction, “Translating the Book of Esther,” B-4, pages 7 and following).
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 .