Esther 7

So the king and Haman came to eat and drink with Queen Esther.

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

NoteThis is the second of two banquets Esther has hosted for the king and Haman; at the first she asked only that they come again the next day. The King James "banquet" means a formal drinking party, not a modern buffet, the Hebrew word is built on the verb "to drink."

2On this second day, while they were drinking wine, the king asked Esther again, "Queen Esther, what do you want to ask for? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even if it is half of my kingdom, it will be done."

2And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.

Note"Even to the half of the kingdom" was a stock royal flourish, a way of saying "name anything," not a literal offer of territory. Persian kings did not divide their empire, and the phrase appears elsewhere in the book as a set formula.

3Queen Esther answered, "If you are pleased with me, O king, and if it seems good to the king, then what I ask for is my own life, and what I request is the life of my people.

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

NoteEsther speaks to her husband in the elaborate third person of the Persian court, "if it please the king" rather than "if it pleases you." The indirectness is protocol, not distance. "Found favour in thy sight" is the standard formula for asking a superior's goodwill.

4For I and my people have been sold, to be wiped out, killed, and destroyed. If we had only been sold as slaves, as men and women servants, I would have kept quiet, even though the enemy could not make up for the loss the king would suffer."

4For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.

Note"We are sold" points back to Haman's offer to pay ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury in exchange for permission to destroy the Jews. The three verbs (destroyed, slain, perish) repeat the exact wording of the decree Haman had drafted. The last clause of this verse is one of the most obscure sentences in the Hebrew Bible; "the enemy could not countervail the king's damage" means roughly "the enemy's payment could not compensate for the loss the king would suffer," but the Hebrew can also be read as "such distress would not be worth troubling the king about." Translators genuinely disagree.

5Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, the man who dared to plan such a thing?"

5Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?

NoteAhasuerus is the Hebrew form of the Persian royal name known in Greek as Xerxes; the modern translation uses Xerxes for the same king. "Durst presume in his heart" is older English for "dared to set his mind on."

6Esther said, "The man against us, our enemy, is this wicked Haman." Then Haman was terrified in front of the king and the queen.

6And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

Note"Adversary" and "enemy" here are two different Hebrew words piled up for force. In Hebrew the sentence delays the name to the very end, so Haman hears the accusation land on himself last.

7The king got up from his wine in anger and went out into the palace garden. Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, because he could see that the king had already decided to ruin him.

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

NoteHaman's danger is that under Persian law a royal decree, once sealed, could not be revoked, so the king cannot simply undo the order, and someone must answer for it.

8The king came back from the palace garden into the room where they had been drinking. Haman had thrown himself down on the couch where Esther was lying. The king said, "Will he even attack the queen while I am here in the house?" As soon as the king said this, servants covered Haman's face.

8Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

NoteDiners at a Persian banquet reclined on couches rather than sitting at tables, so Esther was lying down and Haman, begging at her feet, would have been physically on the same couch. The King James "bed" means a dining couch. To approach a royal woman closely was itself a capital offense, which is why the king reads the posture as assault. Covering a condemned man's face was a recognized gesture in the ancient Near East marking someone already as good as dead, from this moment Haman is not permitted to speak in his own defense.

9Then Harbonah, one of the king's personal servants, said to the king, "There is also a set of gallows standing at Haman's house, fifty cubits high. Haman had it built for Mordecai, the man who spoke up and helped the king." The king said, "Hang Haman on it."

9And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.

Note"Chamberlains" translates a word meaning eunuchs (castrated male officials who staffed the royal household and had access to the women's quarters, a normal and often powerful position in Persian administration. The "gallows" is literally just "the wood" or "the tree": a pole or stake, and the Persian practice was impaling or hanging a body on it for public display rather than execution by rope. Fifty cubits is about seventy-five feet) a cubit was roughly eighteen inches, the length of a forearm, so the point is visibility from across the city, whether or not the figure is exact. "Who had spoken good for the king" refers to Mordecai's earlier exposure of a plot to assassinate Ahasuerus.

10So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had made ready for Mordecai. Then the king's anger cooled down.

10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.