“To King Artaxerxes, 1 from your servants in 2 Trans-Euphrates:
6:11 “I hereby give orders that if anyone changes this directive a beam is to be pulled out from his house and he is to be raised up and impaled 3 on it, and his house is to be reduced 4 to a rubbish heap 5 for this indiscretion. 6
1 tn The Masoretic accents indicate that the phrase “to Artaxerxes the king” goes with what precedes and that the letter begins with the words “from your servants.” But it seems better to understand the letter to begin by identifying the addressee.
2 tn Aram “men of.”
3 sn The practice referred to in v. 11 has been understood in various ways: hanging (cf. 1 Esd 6:32 and KJV); flogging (cf. NEB, NLT); impalement (BDB 1091 s.v. זְקַף; HALOT 1914 s.v. מחא hitpe; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). The latter seems the most likely.
4 tn Aram “made.”
5 tn Aram “a dunghill.”
6 tn Aram “for this.”