Esther 7:3-10

3 Then Queen Esther replied, "¹If 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 ²we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, ³to 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, "⁴A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!" Then Haman became terrified before * the king and queen.

Haman Is Hanged

7 The king arose ⁵in his anger from drinking wine and went into ⁶the 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 ⁷the 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, ⁸the gallows standing at Haman's house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai ⁹who spoke good on behalf of the king!" And the king said, "Hang him on it."

10 ¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, ¹¹and the king's anger subsided.

Esther 7:3-10 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.

Cross References

• 1. Esther 5:8; Esther 8:5
• 2. Esther 3:9
• 3. Esther 3:13
• 4. Esther 3:10
• 5. Esther 1:12
• 6. Esther 1:5
• 7. Esther 1:6
• 8. Esther 5:14
• 9. Esther 2:22
• 10. Psalms 7:16; Psalms 94:23
• 11. Esther 7:7, 8

Footnotes

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