5:1 It so happened that on the third day Esther put on her royal attire and stood in the inner court of the palace, 2 opposite the king’s quarters. 3 The king was sitting on his royal throne in the palace, opposite the entrance. 4
25:23 So the next day Agrippa 15 and Bernice came with great pomp 16 and entered the audience hall, 17 along with the senior military officers 18 and the prominent men of the city. When Festus 19 gave the order, 20 Paul was brought in.
1 tn The Hebrew verbal forms could be imperatives (“Disguise yourself and enter”), but this would make no sense in light of the immediately following context. The forms are better interpreted as infinitives absolute functioning as cohortatives. See IBHS 594 §35.5.2a. Some prefer to emend the forms to imperfects.
2 tn Heb “of the house of the king”; NASB, NRSV “of the king’s palace.”
3 tn Heb “the house of the king”; NASB “the king’s rooms”; NIV, NLT “the king’s hall.” This expression is used twice in this verse. In the first instance, it is apparently the larger palace complex that is in view, whereas in the second instance the expression seems to refer specifically to the quarters from which the king governed.
4 tn Heb “the entrance of the house” (so ASV).
5 tc The final comment (“one on whose head the royal crown has been”) is not included in the LXX.
6 tc The present translation reads with the LXX וְהִלְבִּישׁוֹ (vÿhilbisho, “and he will clothe him”) rather than the reading of the MT וְהִלְבִּישׁוּ (vÿhilbishu, “and they will clothe”). The reading of the LXX is also followed by NAB, NRSV, TEV, CEV, and NLT. Likewise, the later verbs in this verse (“cause him to ride” and “call”) are better taken as singulars rather than plurals.
7 tn Heb “and let them call” (see the previous note).
8 tn Grk “But what.” Here ἀλλά (alla, a strong contrastive in Greek) produces a somewhat awkward sense in English, and has not been translated. The same situation occurs at the beginning of v. 9.
9 sn The reference to fancy clothes makes the point that John was not rich or powerful, in that he did not come from the wealthy classes.
10 tn Or “palaces.”
11 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Or “apparel.” On Herod’s robes see Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.344), summarized in the note at the end of v. 23.
13 tn Although BDAG 175 s.v. βῆμα 3 gives the meaning “speaker’s platform” for this verse, and a number of modern translations use similar terms (“rostrum,” NASB; “platform,” NRSV), since the bema was a standard feature in Greco-Roman cities of the time, there is no need for an alternative translation here.
14 tn Or “delivered a public address.”
15 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
16 tn Or “great pageantry” (BDAG 1049 s.v. φαντασία; the term is a NT hapax legomenon).
17 tn Or “auditorium.” “Auditorium” may suggest to the modern English reader a theater where performances are held. Here it is the large hall where a king or governor would hold audiences. Paul once spoke of himself as a “spectacle” to the world (1 Cor 4:8-13).
18 tn Grk “the chiliarchs” (officers in command of a thousand soldiers). In Greek the term χιλίαρχος (ciliarco") literally described the “commander of a thousand,” but it was used as the standard translation for the Latin tribunus militum or tribunus militare, the military tribune who commanded a cohort of 600 men.
19 sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.
20 tn Grk “and Festus ordering, Paul was brought in.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun in the translation, and καί (kai) has not been translated. The participle κελεύσαντος (keleusanto") has been taken temporally.