Esther 8:6

6 For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"

Esther 8:6 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 8:6

For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my
people?
&c.] I cannot bear it; it will break my heart; I shall die to see all my people massacred throughout the realm; the thought of it is shocking and shuddering; to see it, intolerable: or "how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?" the same thing in different words, and somewhat more express and explanative. She explains the evil coming upon her people of the utter destruction of them, not barely an oppression, but an extermination of them; and she makes use of a word expressive of their relation to her, as more endearing, being her kindred; she and they being, as it were, of the same family, and with whom she could not but sympathize in distress.

Esther 8:6 In-Context

4 Then the king held out the golden scepter toward Esther. So Esther arose and stood before the king,

5 and said, "If it please the king and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces.

6 For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? Or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"

7 Then King Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, "Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows because he laid his hand upon the Jews.

8 Write ye also for the Jews, as it pleaseth you, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring; for the writing which is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring may no man reverse."