Esther 7:1-8

1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Ester the queen.

2 The king said again to Ester on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is your petition, queen Ester? and it shall be granted you: and what is your request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.

3 Then Ester the queen answered, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:

4 for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondservants and bondmaids, I had held my shalom, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage.

5 Then spoke the king Achashverosh and said to Ester the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that dared presume in his heart to do so?

6 Ester said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

7 The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine [and went] into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Ester the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

8 Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen on the couch whereon Ester was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

Esther 7:1-8 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.