5:14 Haman’s 4 wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows seventy-five feet 5 high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.” 6
It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.
1 tn Heb “if upon the king it is good.” Cf. the similar expression in v. 4, which also occurs in 7:3; 8:5; 9:13.
2 tn Heb “and tomorrow” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “and then.”
3 tn Heb “I will do according to the word of the king,” i.e., answer the question that he has posed. Cf. NCV “Then I will answer your question about what I want.”
4 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “fifty cubits.” Assuming a standard length for the cubit of about 18 inches (45 cm), this would be about seventy-five feet (22.5 meters), which is a surprisingly tall height for the gallows. Perhaps the number assumes the gallows was built on a large supporting platform or a natural hill for visual effect, in which case the structure itself may have been considerably smaller. Cf. NCV “a seventy-five foot platform”; CEV “a tower built about seventy-five feet high.”
6 tn Or “joyful”; NRSV “in good spirits”; TEV “happy.”