Esther 7:3

3 Ad quem illa respondit: Si inveni gratiam in oculis tuis o rex, et si tibi placet, dona mihi animam meam pro qua rogo, et populum meum pro quo obsecro.

Esther 7:3 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 7:3

Then Esther the queen answered and said
Not rolling herself at the king's knees, as Severus F6 writes; but rather, as the former Targum, lifting up her eyes to heaven, and perhaps putting up a secret ejaculation for direction and success:

if I have found favour in thy sight, O king;
as she certainly had heretofore, and even now:

and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition;
not riches, nor honour, nor any place or post at court, or in any of the king's dominions for any friend of her's, was her petition; but for her own life, that that might not be taken away, which was included in the grant the king had made to Haman, though ignorantly, to slay all the Jews, she being one of them:

and my people at my request;
that is, the lives of her people also, that was her request; her own life and her people's were all she had to ask.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Hist. Sacr. l. 2.

Esther 7:3 In-Context

1 Intravit itaque rex et Aman, ut biberent cum regina.
2 Dixitque ei rex etiam secunda die, postquam vino incaluerat: Quae petitio tua Esther ut detur tibi? et quid vis fieri? etiam si dimidiam partem regni mei petieris, impetrabis.
3 Ad quem illa respondit: Si inveni gratiam in oculis tuis o rex, et si tibi placet, dona mihi animam meam pro qua rogo, et populum meum pro quo obsecro.
4 Traditi enim sumus ego et populus meus, ut conteramur, iugulemur, et pereamus. Atque utinam in servos et famulas venderemur: esset tolerabile malum, et gemens tacerem: nunc autem hostis noster est, cuius crudelitas redundat in regem.
5 Respondensque rex Assuerus ait: Quis iste, et cuius potentiae, ut haec audeat facere?
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.