Esther 8:6

6 For {how can I bear} to look on the disaster that will find my people, and {how can I bear} to look on the destruction of my family?"

Esther 8:6 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 8:6

For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my
people?
&c.] I cannot bear it; it will break my heart; I shall die to see all my people massacred throughout the realm; the thought of it is shocking and shuddering; to see it, intolerable: or "how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" the same thing in different words, and somewhat more express and explanative. She explains the evil coming upon her people of the utter destruction of them, not barely an oppression, but an extermination of them; and she makes use of a word expressive of their relation to her, as more endearing, being her kindred; she and they being, as it were, of the same family, and with whom she could not but sympathize in distress.

Esther 8:6 In-Context

4 And the king held out to Esther the scepter of gold, and Esther rose and stood before the king,

5 and she said, "If it is good to the king, and if I have found favor before him, and if the king is pleased with this matter, and {I have his approval}, let [an edict] be written to revoke the letters of the plans of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews that [are] in all the provinces of the king.

6 For {how can I bear} to look on the disaster that will find my people, and {how can I bear} to look on the destruction of my family?"

7 And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Look, I have given Haman's house to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows because he {plotted against} the Jews.

8 Write {as you see fit} concerning the Jews in the name of the king, and seal [it] with the king's signet ring; for a decree that is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's signet ring cannot be revoked."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "how am I able"
• [b]. Literally "how am I able"