complete verse (Esther 8:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Esther 8:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “On the twenty third day of the third month, the king’s secretaries were called/summoned to come and write letters to the Jews. Those letters, too, were to reach/to be sent also to the leaders who were near the king, and the rulers of one hundred twenty seven provinces/areas. It was again said that there should also be written to the leaders of every community in that country from the border of the country of India to the one (country) of Cush. There was written to the Jews in their language and written to every community in their various languages according to how Mordecai had said.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “On the 23rd day of the third month, Sivan, the king called all the secretaries. According to the command given by Mordecai to the Jews, a letter was written to the officials and courtiers of 127 provinces from India to the land of Cush. each in their own language.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “So on the 23th day of the third month, which is the month of Sivan, the king’s secretaries were-summoned. They wrote-down everything Mordecai that dictated to them. The letter is for the Jews, governors, leaders/[lit. heads], and officers of the 127 provinces from India to Etiopia. This was-written in each languages of the throughout the whole kingdom, including the language of the Jews.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Eastern Bru: “That day was the twenty third day of the third month (the month of Savan). Mordecai called together the group of people who usually wrote papers for the king, then he told them to write a paper for him. He wanted to send it to the Jewish people and to all the leaders, important people and chiefs in all the one hundred twenty seven countries from India to Ethiopia. They wrote following all the writing systems and every language spoken in that country. And they wrote to the Jewish people in their own language.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
  • English: “Then the king summoned his secretaries, on June 25th, and Mordecai told them to write letters to the Jews and to all the governors and other officials in all of the 127 provinces, which extended from India in the east to Ethiopia in the west. They wrote these letters in all the languages that the people in each area spoke. They also wrote letters to the Jewish people, in their language.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

king

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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:

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  • Piro: “a great one”
  • Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
  • Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
  • Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • 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.”

(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )

See also king (Japanese honorifics).

Translation commentary on Esther 8:9   

Esther 8.9 is the longest verse in The Writings, the third major division of the Hebrew Bible. Good News Translation 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 Good News Translation, 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.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Esther 8:9

Paragraph 8:9–14

There are many similarities between this passage and the section about Haman’s plot to kill the Jews. You should compare this passage with 3:12–15.

8:9a

royal scribes: See note on 3:12a.

were summoned: The text does not say who summoned the secretaries, but it was probably Mordecai and Esther, since the king had permitted them to issue the order.

Sivan: See the note about Tebeth in 2:16. The month of Sivan was from mid-May to mid-June.

8:9b

satraps: See note on 3:12b.

princes: See note on 1:3b.

from India to Cush: See note on 1:1c.

8:9c

writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language: The same instructions were given for the writing of these documents as for the original documents which Haman wrote. See 3:12–14.

script: See note on 1:22b.

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