Esther 7:1-6

Esther Pleads for Her People

1 So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen,

2 and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”

3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request.

4 For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”

5 Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise ^[a] such a scheme?”

6 Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!” And Haman stood in terror 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] Hebrew whose heart has filled him to do