commas - Does this sentence have too many subjunctives?
Does this sentence have too many subjunctives?
If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries.
I am stumped by this sentence construction. First, there is "Let it be," which is a common English idiomatic phrase, but then it follows another subjunctive. Is that to say you can actually have a subjunctive followed by another subjunctive? Also, why does the sentence use "please"? If that's the subjunctive tense there, then why is it followed by another subjunctive instead of a conditional, or maybe "Let it be" is the conditional? Lastly, I wish to know how the that is used in the sentence. Perhaps, the simplified sentence can be restated like so:
Let it be decreed that they be destroyed and that they may put it into the king's treasuries.
If not, maybe the simplified sentence can be restated like so:
I will pay [insert direct object here] so that they may put it [insert prepositional phrase here].
Maybe the "so" word is eliminated and replaced by a comma?
For reference, this lengthy sentence comes from the Esther 3:9 (English Standard Version of the Holy Bible).
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