Esther 7:1-6

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.

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.

Cross References

• 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

Footnotes

• [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"