8Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God: the cost is to be paid to these people, in full and without delay, from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province Beyond the River.
The Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that is typically translated as “elders” in English is translated in the DanishBibelen 2020 as folkets ledere or “leaders of the people.”
Martin Ehrensvärd, one of the translators, explains: “The term ‘elder’ turned out to pose a particularly thorny problem. In traditional bibles, you can find elders all of over the place and they never pose a problem for a translator, they are just always elders. But how to find a contemporary term for this semi-official, complex position? This may have been our longest-standing problem. A couple of times we thought we had the solution, and then implemented it throughout the texts, only to find out that it didn’t work. Like when we used city council or village council, depending on the context. In the end we felt that the texts didn’t work with such official terms, and throughout the years in the desert, these terms didn’t make much sense. Other suggestions were ‘the eldest and wisest’, ‘the respected citizens’, ‘the Israelites with a certain position in society’, ‘the elder council’ –- and let me point out that these terms sound better in Danish than in English (‘de fremtrædende borgere,’ ‘de mest fremtrædende israelitter,’ ‘alle israelitter med en vis position,’ ‘de ældste og de klogeste,’ ‘ældsterådet’). In the end we just said ‘leaders of the people.’ After a lot of hand-wringing, it turned out that we actually found a term that worked well. So, we had to give up conveying the fact that they were old, but the most important point is that they were community leaders.” (Source: Ehrensvärd in HIPHIL Novum 8/2023, p. 81ff. )
The Germandas Buch translation by Roland Werner (publ. 2009-2022) translates likewise as “leader of the people” (Anführer des Volkes).
In Malay, the pronoun beta for the royal “I” (or “my” or “me”) that is used by royals when speaking to people of lower rank, subordinates or commoners to refer to themselves in these verses. This reflects the “language of the court because the monarchy and sultanate in Malaysia are still alive and well. All oral and printed literature (including newspapers and magazines) preserve and glorify the language of the court. Considering that the language of the court is part of the Malaysian language, court language is used sparingly where appropriate, specifically with texts relating to palace life.” (Source: Daud Soesilo in The Bible Translator 2025, p. 263ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Ezra 6:8:
Kupsabiny: “And again I give authority for what you must do to/for these elders of the Jews in/for the construction/building of this house of God. What should be paid to these people for the work are to come from where the upkeep of rulership is kept (the money/government funds) that are collected from the West across river Euphrates so that (the) work does not stop.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “I command you, help them in that work! Pay [lit.: give] their expenditures immediately from the tax collected from the West Euphrates province, the work must not be stopped. ” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “‘I am also commanding that you (plur.) help-out the leaders/[lit. heads] of the Jews by paying right-away all the expenses so-that the work will- not -be-delayed. You (plur.) will-take the payment from the money of the kingdom which came from the taxes in your (plur.) province.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “‘Furthermore, I declare that you must help these leaders of the Jews as they rebuild this temple of God by giving them funds for the building work.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a formal plural suffix to the second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. In these verses, anata-gata (あなたがた) is used, combining the second person pronoun anata and the plural suffix -gata to create a formal plural pronoun (“you” [plural] in English).
Moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do … for the rebuilding of this house of God: Darius also makes a decree of what the Persian officials are to do to help rebuild the Temple. They must pay for the expenses of the rebuilding project by using the money collected for Darius in the province where the Temple is located. Moreover translates the Aramaic connective conjunction, which introduces this new development in the king’s command. “I hereby command you to help them rebuild it” in Good News Translation may be misleading after saying “Stay away from the Temple” at the end of verse 6. The “help” here in verse 8 refers to money and goods, not labor.
To these men: This refers specifically to the elders of the Jews.
In full emphasizes that the command is to be obeyed “diligently” or “promptly.” In full as translated by Revised Standard Version (also New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible) emphasizes that the payment is to be made “fully” (New International Version), “exactly” (Bible en français courant, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), “with faithfulness” (Chouraqui), or “on time” (Osty-Trinquet). Compare Ezra 5.8, where Revised Standard Version has “diligently” for the same expression.
The phrase without delay is literally “so as not to stop.” It could refer to the payment of the money (so Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Alternatively, it may refer to the building work (Septuagint, Syriac, New International Version, Good News Translation) and is an echo of Ezra 4.24 where the work was “stopped.” The same verb is used in both places. In this case it can be translated as “without interruption” (compare Good News Translation).
From the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River: The expenses are to be paid literally from the “king’s treasures” (royal revenue). These are the “resources of the king” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) that he receives from the tribute collected as taxes in the province Beyond the River (see Ezra 4.13) as Good News Translation makes explicit.
Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
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