Esther 7:1-9

Esther's Plea

1 Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen.

2 And the king said to Esther on the second day also as they drank their wine at the banquet, "¹What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? ²Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done."

3 Then Queen Esther replied, "³If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request;

4 for ⁴we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, ⁵to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves *, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the trouble would not be commensurate with the annoyance to the king."

5 Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who would presume * to do thus?"

6 Esther said, "⁶A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!" Then Haman became terrified before * the king and queen.

Haman Is Hanged

7 The king arose ⁷in his anger from drinking wine and went into ⁸the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.

8 Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on ⁹the couch where * Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?" As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, "Behold indeed, ¹⁰the gallows standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai ¹¹who spoke good on behalf of the king!" And the king said, "Hang him on it."

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Esther 7:1-9 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 11

1. Esther 5:6; Esther 9:12
2. Esther 5:3
3. Esther 5:8; Esther 8:5
4. Esther 3:9
5. Esther 3:13
6. Esther 3:10
7. Esther 1:12
8. Esther 1:5
9. Esther 1:6
10. Esther 5:14
11. Esther 2:22

Footnotes 7

[a]. Lit "at the banquet of wine"
[b]. Or "enemy could not compensate for the loss"
[c]. Or "damage"
[d]. Lit "said and said to"
[e]. Lit "whose heart has been filled"
[f]. Lit "the banquet of wine"
[g]. Lit "house of the banquet of wine"