be used on the basis of present-day political administration, but care must be taken not to imply that the structure of Persian government administration was the same as that of a modern state. In those days: many rather literal translations such as RSV, NJV, TOB, and El Libro del pueblo de Dios (LPD) reflect the repetitive nature of the Hebrew text. The repetition serves to underline that the story which follows happened in those days. In translation the first verse may be restructured to introduce