Esther 7

At the second banquet Esther finally speaks. She asks the king to spare her life and her people’s lives, and names Haman as the enemy. Haman’s plot turns back on his own head, and he is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai.

Esther 7:1

The king and Haman come to the second banquet Esther has prepared. Haman thinks he is at the height of royal favor. He does not know the queen he is dining with belongs to the people he plans to destroy.

BSA: dine (“to banquet, to drink wine”): The feast is a relaxed, wine-drinking occasion, the setting Esther has chosen for her great request.

Esther 7:2

For the third time the king offers Esther whatever she asks, even up to half the kingdom. This is a figure of speech for great generosity. The offer gives her an open door to make her request at last.

BSA: petition (“request, plea”): The word carries the sense of a plea made to a superior, which suits Esther’s humble position before the king.

See also: Esther 5:3; Esther 5:6.

Esther 7:3

Esther speaks humbly and personally. She asks first for her own life, then for her people’s. She does not hide who she is. She puts herself and her nation together, and so risks everything.

BSA: life (“my soul, my being”): She is asking for her whole self to be spared, not just to avoid a passing danger. favor (“graciousness, kindness”): Her appeal rests on the king’s kindness, not on any claim of right.

Hebrew: נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, H5315) — “my life, my very self.” The Hebrew word often means the whole living person. Esther is pleading for her entire being and for the whole being of her people.

Esther 7:4

Esther says her people have been sold for destruction. She uses three words that echo the decree’s own wording. She says slavery would have been a lesser matter, one she would not have troubled the king about. This is a death sentence for a whole people.

BSA: sold out (“given up, betrayed”): It recalls the money Haman offered for the decree, so the people were treated like goods to be disposed of. annihilation (“perishing, being cut off”): The word shows the aim was to wipe the nation out completely.

See also: Esther 3:9; Esther 3:13.

Esther 7:5

The king is shocked and asks who would dare do this. He had approved the decree without grasping what it meant. Now, with his own queen under threat, he sees it for what it is.

BSA: scheme (“evil plan, wicked plot”): The king now recognizes the decree as a wicked plot, not a routine order.

Esther 7:6

Esther names Haman plainly. She calls him adversary and enemy. Haman, who a moment ago sat at the queen’s table, is suddenly gripped by terror. The man who held so much power now has none.

BSA: terror (“was afraid, filled with sudden fear”): His fear comes all at once, as his plan collapses in front of him.

Hebrew: צַר (tsar, H6862) — “adversary, one who presses in.” The word pictures an enemy who hems someone in. Esther uses it of Haman, who had tried to corner her whole people.

Esther 7:7

The king storms out into the garden, probably to weigh what to do. Haman understands that the king has decided against him. He stays behind to beg the queen, the very woman he meant to destroy, for mercy.

BSA: fury (“rage, wrath”): The king’s anger is intense. It is now aimed at Haman rather than at the Jews.

Esther 7:8

The king returns and finds Haman fallen across Esther’s couch as he begs. It looks to the king like an assault on the queen. Whatever Haman meant, it seals his fate. Covering the face was a sign of a person condemned.

BSA: falling (“to prostrate oneself”): Haman had thrown himself down to plead, but the king reads the scene as an attack. covered (“to hide, conceal”): Covering the face marked a man as doomed.

Esther 7:9

Harbonah, one of the king’s attendants, mentions the gallows Haman built for Mordecai. The man who once saved the king is the man Haman meant to hang. The king orders Haman hanged on it. The gallows was about seventy-five feet high.

BSA: gallows (“a pole for hanging, a means of execution”): It was a tall wooden stake, built to make a public spectacle of Mordecai. report (“spoke good, delivered a message”): Mordecai’s good deed in exposing a plot against the king was never forgotten.

See also: Esther 2:21-23; Esther 5:14.

Esther 7:10

Haman dies on the gallows he prepared. His plan to destroy the righteous falls on himself, and the king’s anger cools. Scripture often shows evil trapping those who set it. God’s people are kept, though his name is never spoken in this book.

BSA: prepared (“set up, established”): Haman carefully set up the instrument of his own death. subsided (“calmed down, pacified, became less”): Once justice was done, the king’s rage was quieted.

See also: Psalm 7:15-16; Proverbs 26:27.