Esther 7:1-6

Esther’s Banquet

1 So the king and Haman went {to dine} with Queen Esther.

2 And the king again said to Esther, on the second day {while they were drinking}, "What [is] your petition, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What [is] your request? It will be given [to you]--even half the kingdom."

3 Then Queen Esther answered, and she said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it is good to the king, let my life be given to me at my petition and my people at my request;

4 I and my people have been sold to be destroyed and killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold as male and female slaves I would have kept quiet, because this is not a need sufficient to trouble the king."

5 And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who [is] he, and where [is] he, who {gave himself the right to do this}?"

6 And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy [is] this evil Haman!" And Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

Esther 7:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ESTHER 7

Esther, being solicited by the king to tell him her petition, asks for her life and the lives of her people, who were sold to be destroyed, Es 7:1-4, the king, amazed at her request, inquires who was the person that dared to do so vile a thing; and was told by her it was Haman there present, Es 7:5,6 on which the king went out into the garden in wrath, and, returning, found Haman on Esther's bed, which still more incensed him; and being told that Haman had prepared a gallows for Mordecai, the king ordered that he himself should be hanged upon it, which was done accordingly, Es 7:7-10.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "to drink"
• [b]. Literally "at the meal of wine"
• [c]. Or "If I have won your favor"
• [d]. Hebrew "there"
• [e]. See HALOT 1437, s.v. NRSV translates, "but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king"
• [f]. Literally "has filled his heart to do so"