Esther 7 commentary

ESTHER 7 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Haman Impaled
1 So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s
banquet,
GILL, "So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. Or,
"to drink with her" (e), that is, wine; for in the next verse it is called a banquet of wine;
so they did according to the invitation the queen had given them, Est_5:8.
HE RY 1-4, "The king in humour, and Haman out of humour, meet at Esther's
table. Now,
I. The king urged Esther, a third time, to tell him what her request was, for he longed
to know, and repeated his promise that it should be granted, Est_7:2. If the king had
now forgotten that Esther had an errand to him, and had not again asked what it was,
she could scarcely have known how to renew it herself; but he was mindful of it, and now
was bound with the threefold cord of a promise thrice made to favour her.
II. Esther, at length, surprises the king with a petition, not for wealth or honour, or the
preferment of some of her friends to some high post, which the king expected, but for
the preservation of herself and her countrymen from death and destruction, Est_7:3,
Est_7:4.
1. Even a stranger, a criminal, shall be permitted to petition for his life; but that a
friend, a wife, should have occasion to present such a petition was very affecting: Let my
life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. Two things bespeak lives
to be very precious, and fit to be saved, if innocent, at any expense: - (1.) Majesty. If it be
a crowned head that is struck at, it is time to stir. Esther's was such: “Let my life be given
me. If thou hast any affection for the wife of thy bosom, now is the time to show it; for
that is the life that lies at stake.” (2.) Multitude. If they be many lives, very many, and
those no way forfeited, that are aimed at, no time should be lost nor pains spared to
prevent the mischief. “It is not a friend or two, but my people, a whole nation, and a
nation dear to me, for the saving of which I now intercede.”
2. To move the king the more she suggests, (1.) That she and her people were bought
and sold. They had not sold themselves by any offence against the government, but were
sold to gratify the pride and revenge of one man. (2.) That it was not their liberty only,
but their lives that were sold. “Had we been sold” (she says) “into slavery, I would not
have complained; for in time we might have recovered our liberty, thought eh king

would have made but a bad bargain of it, and not have increased his wealth by our price.
Whatever had been paid for us, the loss of so many industrious hands out of his
kingdom would have been more damage to the treasury than the price would
countervail.” To persecute good people is as impolitic as it is impious, and a manifest
wrong to the interests of princes and states; they are weakened and impoverished by it.
But this was not the case. We are sold (says she) to be destroyed, to be slain, and to
perish; and then it is time to speak. She refers to the words of the decree (Est_3:13),
which aimed at nothing short of their destruction; this would touch in a tender part if
there were any such in the king's heart, and would bring him to relent.
JAMISO ,"Est_7:1-6. Esther pleads for her own life and the life of her people.
TRAPP, "Esther 7:1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the
queen.
Ver. 1. So the king and Haman came to the banquet] Heb. To drink, for multorum
vivere est bibere; of many, to live is to drink, and profane persons have a proverb,
Bibere et sudare est vita Cardiaci. To drink and to sweat is the life of Cardiacus.
Such are your chamber champions, whose teeth in a temperate air do beat in their
heads at a cup of cold sack and sugar. Belshazzar’s feast days were called σακεαι
ηµεραι, because he was quaffing in the bowls of the sanctuary, to the honour of
Shac or Bacchus (Greg. Posthum.). Little did either he or Haman think, that in the
fulness of their sufficiency they should be in such straits, aud that every hand of the
troublesome should come upon him; that when they were about to fill their bellies
God should cast the fury of his wrath upon them, and rain it upon them while they
were drinking, Job 20:22-23. But this is the portion of a wicked man from God, and
the heritage appointed unto him by God, Job 20:29. Why, then, should any saint be
sick of the fret, at the prosperity of the ungodly? Surely as fishes are taken in an evil
net, and as birds are caught in a snare, so are such snared in an evil time, when it
falleth suddenly upon them, Ecclesiastes 9:12. Of Esther’s invitation Haman might
have said, as he did of the gifts one sent him,
Munera magna quidem mittit, sed mittit in hamo. (Martial.)
But he knew not yet what evil was toward him; though I doubt not but his
conscience (if not altogether dead and dedolent) began by this time to stare him in
the face; his friends having already read his destiny.
COFFMA , "ESTHER MAKES HER REQUEST; THE KI G GRA TED IT;
A D THE SHE IDE TIFIED HAMA AS HER E EMY; WHOM THE KI G
EXECUTED
This second banquet was the climax of the episode. Esther made her petition for her
life and for the life of all her people. She identified Haman as the author of the plot
to murder them, and she was rewarded by the king's favorable reception of her
plea.

ESTHER'S PETITIO FOR HER LIFE
"So the king and Haman came to the banquet with Esther the queen. And the king
said again to 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? even to the half
of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I
have found favor 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: for 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 peace, although the adversary could not have
compensated for the king's damage."
What an incredible shock that request must have been to Haman! At this point, no
doubt, he began to understand that Esther was pleading for the life of all the Jews
whom Haman had determined to destroy, and that she herself was among the
number. This request was most skillfully presented.
(1) Esther protested that if the Jews had merely been sold as slaves, she would have
held her peace.
(2) She protested that Haman had lied about being able to compensate the king for
the damage done.
(3) She displayed perfect knowledge of Haman's immense bribe, noting that she and
her people had been "sold."
(4) She placed all the blame on Haman, ignoring the king's own responsibility for
that evil decree.
CO STABLE, "Esther"s plea7:1-6
This banquet probably took place in the afternoon, since Haman had already led
Mordecai around Susa on a horse that day, and since Haman died later that day.
Esther was in a very dangerous position. ot only did she now identify herself with
a minority group that Haman had represented to the king as subversive, but she
also accused one of his closest confidential advisers of committing an error in
judgment. evertheless she appealed to the king to do what was in his best interests
( Esther 7:4). Ahasuerus saw at once that his enemy, whoever he was, was going to
rob him of his queen and his wealth. When Esther finally named the culprit,
Ahasuerus had already decided to punish him severely.
LA GE, "Esther 7:1-6. What here follows seems a thing to be expected as a matter
of course, yet the manner of its occurrence, particularly the rapidity with which
events succeed each other, as well as their magnitude and importance, imparts a
certain charm to the narrative. Esther now steps unreservedly forward at the
banquet that she has prepared and to which she has invited Haman (in Esther 6:14),

and boldly presents her accusation and request. The king is quite prepared to give a
correct decision in the case.
Esther 7:1. So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.—‫תּוֹת‬ ְ‫ִשׁ‬‫ל‬
stands for: in order to participate in the‫ה‬ֶ‫תּ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ‫מ‬. The drinking after the feast, ‫ִן‬‫י‬ַ‫יּ‬ַ‫ה‬ ‫ה‬ֵ‫תּ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ‫מ‬
(comp. Esther 5:6) was probably regarded as the chief matter at the time. But
Esther petitioned ( Esther 7:3): let my life be given at my petition, and my people at
my request.—The ְ‫בּ‬ is the Song of Solomon -called ְ‫בּ‬pretii, “about,” “for.” Her
petition is seemingly the ransom which she proffers: “my people” means in short:
for the life of my people. She bases her petition in Esther 7:4 on the words: For we
are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed,etc.—She has all the more occasion for the
expression ‫נוּ‬ ְ‫ַר‬‫כּ‬ְ‫מ‬ִ‫נ‬, since she and her people were left to the mercy of Haman for the
sum of money he had promised the king if the Jews should be destroyed ( Esther
3:9; Esther 4:7). ‫יד‬ִ‫מ‬ְ‫ַשׁ‬‫ה‬ְ‫ל‬ and the following active infinitives are clearly substitutes
for the passive form, precisely as in the royal order ( Esther 3:13).[F 6] She also
adds, however: 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, and she
thereby indicates that it concerns not only her own, but also the king’s interest. ‫לּוּ‬ִ‫,א‬
contracted from ‫סלוּ‬ִ‫,א‬ as in Ecclesiastes 6:6, also common in the Aramaic language,
introduces an event in a hypothetical manner as being more desirable, and is
followed by the perfect, if instead another event than the one anticipated has
occurred. In the next sentence usually the perfect follows with ‫ו‬consec. Here,
however, the ‫ו‬is absent because Esther does not desire to say what she would do, but
what she would have done: “I had held my tongue, although,” etc. The sentence: ‫ִי‬‫כּ‬
‫ֶה‬‫ו‬ֹ ‫שׁ‬ ‫ָר‬‫צּ‬ַ‫ה‬ ‫ין‬ֵ‫,א‬ means according to R. Sal. ben-Melech and Rambach: The enemy can
by no means equal, compensate or make good by his money the loss which the king
suffers by our destruction Similar also are the views of Clericus and others, who
suggest an intermediate thought enlarging the meaning, such as: “But I dare not be
silent.” Though even such an addition were in itself not doubtful, still ‫ָה‬‫ו‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ in the Kal,
with ְ‫בּ‬, does not mean compensate (to compensate), but to be equal to, or to be worth
as much as some other thing (comp. Proverbs 3:15; Proverbs 8:11). The assumption
of Gesenius, that the expression: “The enemy is not equal to the damage to the
king,” is only another form of sentence for: “The enemy cannot make good the
damage to the king,” is very improbable. Hence Bertheau and Keil interpret it:
“The enemy is not worthy of the king’s damage,” i.e. is not of sufficient account that
I should grieve or distract the king. They insist that ‫ֶק‬‫ז‬ֵ‫נ‬ does not only mean
pecuniary loss, as is commonly assumed from Ezra 4:13; Ezra 4:22, but according to
the Targums means also bodily harm (comp. Targ. Psalm 91:7; Genesis 26:11; 1
Chronicles 26:22). Still the thought thus gained is not quite satisfactory. It would
have mattered little, not whether Haman, but whether the Jews were worthy of the
king’s displeasure. Certain it is that Esther expressed herself in very brief words,
and such as implied more. Perhaps we may enlarge their sense thus: I would have
held my tongue; for the punishment of the enemy is not worthy of, is less important
than the averting of the damage which the king will suffer, now that the Jews are
ordered to be destroyed; but this he would not have suffered if they had been sold as
slaves, and hence had realized a large sum. In this way the chief thought is made to
be the loss which the king would sustain if a whole people were destroyed; and

Esther’s keeping out of sight her special concern about the destruction of the Jews,
which would have been very shrewd in her under any circumstances, becomes
particularly so in the present instance and before Ahasuerus. The ancient
translators, it seems, were at a loss here, and hence offer us but little help.
BI 1-6, "What is thy petition, queen Esther?
Esther’s petition
1. When called to speak for God and His people, we must summon up our courage,
and act with becoming confidence and decision. Had Esther held her peace, under
the influence of timidity or false prudence, or spoken with reserve as to the designs
against the Jews and their author, she would have been rejected as an instrument of
Jacob’s deliverance, and her name would not have stood at the head of one of the
inspired books.
2. When persons resolve singly and conscientiously to discharge their duty in critical
circumstances, they are often wonderfully helped. The manner in which Esther
managed her cause was admirable, and showed that her heart and tongue were
under a superior influence and management. How becoming her manner and the
spirit with which she spoke!
3. It is possible to plead the most interesting of all causes, that of innocence and
truth, with moderation and all due respect. The address of Esther was respectful to
Ahasuerus as a king and a husband: “If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and
if it please the king.” Esther was calm as well as courageous, respectful as well as
resolute.
4. It argues no want of respect to those in authority to describe evil counsellors in
their true colours in bringing an accusation against them, or in petitioning against
their unjust and destructive measures. “The adversary and enemy is this wicked
Haman.”
5. It is horrible to think and hard to believe that there is such wickedness as is
perpetrated in the world. “Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his
heart to do so?” We might well ask, Who was he that betrayed his master, and where
did they live who crucified the Lord of glory? Who or where is he that dares presume
to say, even in his heart, “There is no God”—that denies a providence, profanes the
name and day of God, turns the Bible into a jest-book, mocks at prayer and fasting,
and scoffs at judgment to come? And yet such persons are to be found in our own
time.
6. We sometimes startle at the mention of vices to which we ourselves have been
accessory. “who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?” He
is not unknown to thee, neither is he far from thee, O king. “Thou art the man!” And
how seldom do we reflect on the degree in which we have been accessory to and
participant in the sins of Others by our bad example, our criminal silence, and the
neglect of those means which were in our power, and which we had a right to employ
for checking them.
7. Persecution is not more unjust than it is impolitic. (T. McCrie, D. D.)
The prudent management of things

I. We see the great importance of capable and prudent management of things. Esther’s
management of these great affairs is evidently consummate. There is an overruling
providence, but there is also a teaching wisdom of God, and if we wish to be fully under
the protection of the one, we must open all our faculties to receive the other.
II. We have in Esther’s behaviour a very notable and noble instance of calm and
courageous action in strict conformity with the predetermined plan. How few women are
born into the world who could go through these scenes as Esther does I How many
would faint through fear I How many would be carried by excitement into a premature
disclosure of the secret! How many would be under continual temptation to change the
plan! Only a select few can be calm and strong in critical circumstances, patient and yet
intense, prudent and yet resolved.
III. Her boldness takes here a form which it has not before assuaged; it is shown in the
denunciation of a particular person: “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.”
Strong language; but, at any rate, it is open and honest and above-board—no whispering
into the king’s private ear; no secret plotting to supplant the Prime Minister. Every word
is uttered in the man’s hearing, and to his face. Let him deny, if he can; let him explain, if
he can. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Let my life be given me at my petition.
A plea for life
We have the very same cause for urgency of suit as she had. It behoveth us to say in the
presence of another King, “Oh, let my life be given me at my petition.” There is a royal
law, and under that law our lives are forfeited. Life, in the narrative before us, was about
to be taken away unjustly—by force of a most cruel mandate; but it is a holy law that
dooms us to death. (J. Hughes.)
For we are sold.—
A plea for liberty
We also ought to sue both for our fives and our liberties. By nature we are the bondmen
and bondwomen of sin and Satan. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?—
The doings of a wicked heart
I. A wicked heart induces foolhardiness. “Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume
in his heart to do so?” Haman’s daring presumption. A wicked heart is both deceitful and
deceiving.
II. A wicked heart sooner or later meets with open condemnation.
III. A wicked heart leads to fearfulness. (W. Burrows, B. A.)
Moral indignation,

being commonly sudden and intense in uttering itself, furnishes strong testimony in
favour of the universal principles of God’s moral law; but we have need to be careful how
we indulge in expression of virtuous wrath. It is safe and wholesome for us to pause and
ask whether there is no risk that in judging others we may be condemning ourselves.
Ahasuerus will feel ere long that he has uttered his own condemnation. (A. M.
Symington, B. A.)
The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.—
The index finger
“The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” This is the best way of dealing with
every enemy. Definite statements are manageable, but vague charges are never to be
entertained. No man makes progress who deals in generalities. The sermon is in the
application. The prayer is in the amen. Let us apply this teaching.
I. In the matter of our own personal character.
1. Put your finger upon the weak point of your character, and say, “Thy name is Self-
indulgence.” Tell yourself that you are allowing your life to ooze away through self-
gratification. You never say no to an appetite, you never smite a desire in the face.
2. Take it another direction. “The adversary and enemy is this infernal jealousy.”
Your disease, say to yourself, is jealousy. Speak in this fashion when you have
entered your closet and shut your door; say, “I am a jealous man, and therefore I am
an unjust man; I cannot bear that that man should be advancing; I hate him; the
recollection of his name interferes with my prayers; would God I could lay hold of
something I could publish against him, I would run him to death.” Yes, this is the
reality of the case, God never casts out this devil, this all-devil; only thou canst
exorcise this legion.
3. Or take it in some other aspect and say, “The adversary and enemy is this eternal
worldliness, that will not let me get near my God.”
II. With regard to public accusations.
1. Take it in the matter of public decay.
(1) Who in looking abroad upon the country will say, “The adversary and enemy
is this wicked liquor traffic”?
(2) Or, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked official self-seeking”?
2. Apply the same law to the decline of spiritual power. It is an easy thing to read a
paper on this subject, but who names the Haman? What keeps us back?
(1) Fear of offending the world. The world ought to be offended. No worldling
should ever have one moment’s comfort in the house of God. He should feel that
unless he is prepared to change his disposition, he is altogether in the wrong
place.
(2) Sometimes the enemy is doubt in the heart of the preacher himself. The man
is divided. His axe is split across the very edge. There is no power in his right
arm. When he speaks he keeps back the emphasis.
III. We might apply the same doctrine to hindrances in the church. The adversary and
enemy is this wicked, cold-hearted man. Whenever he comes into the church the

preacher cannot preach; he cannot do many mighty works because that man is there,
cold, icy, critical. We are afraid to name the adversary in church; we confine ourselves to
“proper” words, to “decent” expressions, to euphemisms that have neither beginning nor
ending as to practical vitality and force. We are the victims of circumlocution, we go
round and round the object of our attack, and never strike it in the face. What we want is
a definite, tremendous, final stroke. Esther succeeded. Her spirit can never fail. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.—
Guilt cowardly
Haman was now left alone with his righteous accuser. Innocence is courageous, but guilt
is cowardly. Men, with the consciousness of having truth and justice on their side, have
risen superior to the fear of death, and stood undaunted before wrathful kings. But this
man, haughty and hardened in view of the sufferings of others, no sooner sees that evil is
determined against himself than he becomes a poor, unnerved trembling suppliant at
the feet of her whom he had most grievously wronged. (T. McEwan.)
Cruel people often cowardly
Very cruel people are sometimes very cowardly. Judge Jeffreys could go through his
black assize in the West of England, the terror of the land, manifesting the fury of a wild
beast; but when the tide turned, and he saw nothing before him but ignominy and
disgrace, he sank into a state of abject fear which was pitiable to see. “Haman was afraid
before the king and the queen.” As he well may be. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
2 and as they were drinking wine on the second
day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is
your petition? It will be given you. What is your
request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be
granted.”
CLARKE, "At the banquet of wine - Postquam vino incaluerat, after he had been
heated with wine, says the Vulgate. In such a state the king was more likely to come into

the measures of the queen.
GILL, "And the king said again to Esther on the second day, at the banquet
of wine,.... This was the third time he put the following question to her, being very
desirous of knowing what she had to ask of him; and it was of God that this was kept
upon his mind, and he was moved to solicit her petition, or otherwise it would not have
been so easy for her to have introduced it:
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 my kingdom; see
Est_5:3.
K&D, "Est_7:2-4
At this banquet of wine the king asked again on the second day, as he had done on the
first (Est_5:6): What is thy petition, Queen Esther, etc.? Esther then took courage to
express her petition. After the usual introductory phrases (Est_7:3 like Est_5:8), she
replied: “Let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.” For, she
adds as a justification and reason for such a petition, “we are sold, I and my people, to be
destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. And if we had been sold for bondmen and
bondwomen, I had been silent, for the enemy is not worth the king's damage.” In this
request ‫י‬ ִ ַ‫ע‬ is a short expression for: the life of my people, and the preposition ְ‫,ב‬ the so-
called ְ pretii. The request is conceived of as the price which she offers or presents for
her life and that of her people. The expression ‫נוּ‬ ְ‫ר‬ ַⅴ ְ‫מ‬ִ‫,נ‬ we are sold, is used by Esther with
reference to the offer of Haman to pay a large sum into the royal treasury for the
extermination of the Jews, Est_3:9; Est_4:7. ‫וּ‬ ִ‫,א‬ contracted after Aramaean usage from
‫לוּ‬ ‫ם‬ ִ‫,א‬ and occurring also Ecc_6:6, supposes a case, the realization of which is desired,
but not to be expected, the matter being represented as already decided by the use of the
perfect. The last clause, ‫וגו‬ ‫ר‬ ָ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ין‬ ֵ‫א‬ ‫י‬ ִⅴ, is by most expositors understood as a reference, on
the part of Esther, to the financial loss which the king would incur by the extermination
of the Jews. Thus Rambach, e.g., following R. Sal. ben Melech, understands the meaning
expressed to be: hostis nullo modo aequare, compensare, resarcire potest pecunia sua
damnum, quod rex ex nostro excidio patitur. So also Cler. and others. The confirmatory
clause would in this case refer not to ‫י‬ ִ ְ‫שׁ‬ ַ‫ר‬ ֱ‫ח‬ ֶ‫,ה‬ but to a negative notion needing
completion: but I dare not be silent; and such completion is itself open to objection. To
this must be added, that ‫ה‬ָ‫ו‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ in Kal constructed with ְ does not signify compensare, to
equalize, to make equal, but to be equal; consequently the Piel should be found here to
justify the explanation proposed. ‫ה‬ָ‫ו‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ in Kal constructed with ְ signifies to be of equal
worth with something, to equal another thing in value. Hence Gesenius translates: the
enemy does not equal the damage of the king, i.e., is not in a condition to compensate
the damage. But neither when thus viewed does the sentence give any reason for Esther's
statement, that she would have been silent, if the Jews had been sold for salves. Hence
we are constrained, with Bertheau, to take a different view of the words, and to give up
the reference to financial loss. ‫ק‬ֶ‫ז‬ֵ‫,נ‬ in the Targums, means not merely financial, but also

bodily, personal damage; e.g., Psa_91:7; Gen_26:11, to do harm, 1Ch_16:22. Hence the
phrase may be understood thus: For the enemy is not equal to, is not worth, the damage
of the king, i.e., not worthy that I should annoy the king with my petition. Thus Esther
says, Est_7:4 : The enemy has determined upon the total destruction of my people. If he
only intended to bring upon them grievous oppression, even that most grievous
oppression of slavery, I would have been silent, for the enemy is not worthy that I should
vex or annoy the king by my accusation.
BE SO , "Esther 7:2. The king said again to Esther, What is thy petition, Queen
Esther? &c. — If the king had now forgot that Esther had an errand to him, and
had not again asked what it was, she could scarce have known how to renew it
herself; but he was mindful of it, and now was bound with the three-fold cord of a
promise, thrice made, to favour her.
TRAPP, "Esther 7:2 And 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.
Ver. 2. And the king said again unto Esther] He was very desirous to know what her
suit was; and with thought thereof, as it may seem, could not rest the night before.
He pursueth his desires, not a little edged by her delays; neither was he of those
lusks, who
Remque aliquam exoptant, intahescuntque relieta.
His love to Esther made him ask again, What is thy petition, and what is thy
request? &c. He presseth her to speak out; so doth God his suppliants: "Hitherto ye
have asked nothing: ask, that your joy may be full." Pray, that ye may joy; ye are
not straitened in me, but in your own bowels; as if no water come by the conduit, it
is not because there is none in the spring, but because the pipes are broken. {See
Trapp on "Esther 5:6"}
3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found
favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases
you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And
spare my people—this is my request.

CLARKE, "Let my life be given me - This was very artfully, as well as very
honestly, managed; and was highly calculated to work on the feelings of the king. What!
is the life of the queen, whom I most tenderly love, in any kind of danger?
GILL, "Then Esther the queen answered and said,.... Not rolling herself at the
king's knees, as Severus (f) writes; but rather, as the former Targum, lifting up her eyes
to heaven, and perhaps putting up a secret ejaculation for direction and success:
if I have found favour in thy sight, O king; as she certainly had heretofore, and
even now:
and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition; not riches, nor
honour, nor any place or post at court, or in any of the king's dominions for any friend of
her's, was her petition; but for her own life, that that might not be taken away, which
was included in the grant the king had made to Haman, though ignorantly, to slay all the
Jews, she being one of them:
and my people at my request; that is, the lives of her people also, that was her
request; her own life and her people's were all she had to ask.
BE SO , "Esther 7:3. Then Esther the queen answered and said, &c. — Esther, at
length, surprises the king with a petition, not for wealth, or honour, or the
preferment of some of her friends to some high post, which the king expected, but
for the preservation of herself and her countrymen from death and destruction. O
king, let my life be given me at my petition — It is my humble and only request, that
thou wouldst not give me up to the malice of that man that designs to take away my
life, and will certainly do it, if thou do not prevent it. And my people — That is, the
lives of my people, of the Jews, of whom I am descended. Even a stranger, a
criminal, shall be permitted to petition for his life. But that a friend, a wife, a queen,
should have occasion to make such a request, was very affecting!
TRAPP, "Esther 7:3 Then 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:
Ver. 3. Then Esther the queen, &c.] See Esther 5:7-8. As Abigail her family, and the
woman of Abel the city, so doth Esther by her wisdom and humility deliver herself
and her people, ducem sequens lucem fidei, a leader leading the light of faith, as one
saith of her.
Let my life be given me at my petition] Heb. my soul. See how discreetly she

marshalleth her words; setting these two great requests in the head of her petition,
which is simplex et non fucata, plain and downright. Truth is like our first parents,
most beautiful when naked. Our words in prayer must be neque lecta, neque
neglecta, neither curious nor careless; but as the words of petitioners, plain and full
and direct to the point. Esther reckoneth herself here among the rest of her poor
countrymen, free among the dead, free of that company, and begs for her life and
theirs together; because hers was even bound up in theirs. Mortis habet vices quae
trahitur vita genuitibus; to live after their death would be a lifeless life; and hence
her importunity for both together, since they were in her heart, ad commoriendum
et convivendum, if they died she could not live. Good blood will not belie itself.
Esther had not showed her kindred and people till now that she must appear for
them. See the like in Moses, Hebrews 11:25; in icodemus, that night-bird; John
7:51, he speaks boldly, and silences the whole company; John 19:39, he boldly
beggeth the body of Jesus; neither could he any longer conceal himself. Surely, as
Solomon by trial found out the true harlot mother, so doth God by hard times
discover the affections of his people. Then, as Joseph could not refrain tears, so nor
they the exercise of their faith and charity.
WHEDO , "3. My life… my people — Esther has had time to carefully prepare her
words, and her earnest language rises to the emotionality of poetic parallelisms. We
may throw her address into the following form: —
If I have found favour in thine eyes,
O king, And if to the king it seem good,
Let my life be given me at my petition,
And my people at my request.
For we are sold —
I and my people —
To be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.
If, now, for slaves and for bondwomen we were sold I had been silent,
For the enemy is not to be compared with the injury of the king.
PULPIT, "Esther 7:3
Spare our life!
Was ever so unexpected a request presented as this? When the king in his capricious
favour offered his consort whatsoever she desired, even to the half of his kingdom,
she asked what might have been naturally enough implored from the royal clemency
by some wretched malefactor condemned to expiate his crimes by death. Give us, me
and my people, our life! How strange a boon to beg! A queen high in favour, at a
royal banquet, to ask that her life should be spared, and her kindred delivered from
an unjust and violent end—in fact, a massacre! Thus were the eyes of the king
opened to the infamy of his minister, and thus was Esther made the agent in the
redemption of Israel. In this petition we have an example of the request which, as
suppliant sinners, we are bound to offer before the throne of grace. It implies—

I. A SE SE OF DA GER. It is something to be alive to this. Esther had only lately
come to know of the peril in which she and her countrymen and countrywomen
stood. Awake to the impending danger, she was emboldened to urge her plea. So
with us. A worse enemy than Haman has plotted against the children of men. A
worse fate than massacre awaits those who fall into the snare of the foe. The word of
God comes to us as a word of warning, urging us to "flee from the wrath to come."
Bondage is bad, but death is worse. And "the wages of sin is death."
II. A HOPE OF DELIVERA CE. Esther had her fears; she had gone in, saying, "If
I perish, I perish!" Yet she was encouraged by the gracious demeanour and the
generous promise of the king. Therefore she said, "If I have found favour in thy
sight, O king, and if it please the king." We have no need of such "ifs" in our
approach and our prayer to the King of heaven. He "delighteth in mercy." "If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness." Our hope in Divine mercy is well founded; for it is founded
both upon Divine promises and upon the "unspeakable gift," which is both the
means and the pledge of the gift of pardon and the gift of life.
III. A DESIRE FOR THE SALVATIO OF OTHERS. Esther was not so selfish as
to ask that she and her kinsman, Mordecai, might be spared; her desire was that the
whole nation of the Jews might be delivered. Similar was the attitude of Paul, who
said, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved!"
When we seek salvation through Christ we cannot seek it for ourselves alone; we
shall pray for our households, for our nation, for our race.
"Thy light, that on our souls hath shone
Leads us in hope to thee:
Let us not feel its rays alone—
Alone thy people be.
O bring our dearest friends to God;
Remember those we love;
Fit them on earth for thine abode,
Fit them for joys above."

4 For I and my people have been sold to be
destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had
merely been sold as male and female slaves, I
would have kept quiet, because no such distress
would justify disturbing the king.[a]”
BAR ES, "The king now learned, perhaps for the first time, that his favorite was a
Jewess.
Although the enemy ... - i. e. “although the enemy (Haman) would not (even in that
case) compensate (by his payment to the treasury) for the king’s loss of so many
subjects.”
CLARKE, "To be destroyed, to be slain - She here repeats the words which
Haman put into the decree. See Est_3:13.
Could not countervail the king’s damage - Even the ten thousand talents of
silver could not be considered as a compensation to the state for the loss of a whole
nation of people throughout all their generations.
GILL, "For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to
perish,.... She makes use of these several words, to express the utter destruction of her
and her people, without any exception; not only the more to impress the king's mind
with it, but she has respect to the precise words of the decree, Est_3:13 as she has also to
the 10,000 talents of silver Haman offered to pay the king for the grant of it, when she
says, "we are sold", or delivered to be destroyed:
but if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my
tongue: should never have asked for deliverance from bondage, but have patiently
submitted to it, however unreasonable, unjust, and afflictive it would have been; because
it might have been borne, and there might be hope of deliverance from it at one time or
another; though it is said, slaves with the Persians were never made free (g); but that
being the case would not have been so great a loss to the king, who would have reaped
some advantage by their servitude; whereas, by the death of them, he must sustain a loss
which the enemy was not equal to, and which he could not compensate with all his
riches; which, according to Ben Melech, is the sense of the next clause:
although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage; or, "for the
enemy cannot", &c. the 10,000 talents offered by him, and all the riches that he has, are
not an equivalent to the loss the king would sustain by the death of such a multitude of
people, from whom he received so large a tribute; but this the enemy regarded not; and

so Jarchi interprets it, the enemy took no care of, or was concerned about the king's
damage; but there is another sense, which Aben Ezra mentions, and is followed by some
learned men, who take the word for "enemy" to signify "distress", trouble, and anguish,
as in Psa_4:1 and read the words, "for this distress would not be reckoned the king's
damage" (h), or loss; though it would have been a distress to the Jews to have been sold
for slaves, yet the loss to the king would not be so great as their death, since he would
receive benefit by their service.
JAMISO ,"we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed — that is, by the
cruel and perfidious scheme of that man, who offered an immense sum of money to
purchase our extermination. Esther dwelt on his contemplated atrocity, in a variety of
expressions, which both evinced the depth of her own emotions, and were intended to
awaken similar feelings in the king’s breast.
But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my
tongue — Though a great calamity to the Jews, the enslavement of that people might
have enriched the national treasury; and, at all events, the policy, if found from
experience to be bad, could be altered. But the destruction of such a body of people
would be an irreparable evil, and all the talents Haman might pour into the treasury
could not compensate for the loss of their services.
BE SO , "Esther 7:4. For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, &c. — By
the cruelty of that man, who offered a great sum to purchase our destruction. We
have not forfeited our lives by any offence against the government, but are sold to
gratify the pride and revenge of one man. If we had been sold for bond-men and
bond-women — Sold merely into slavery; I had held my tongue — I would not have
complained, for in time we might have been ransomed and delivered. But it is not
our liberty only, but our lives that are sold. Although the enemy could not
countervail the king’s damage — His ten thousand talents would not repair the
king’s loss in the customs and tributes, which the king receives from the Jews within
his dominions, nor the injury his kingdom would sustain, by the loss of so many
industrious hands out of it. To persecute good people is as impolitic as it is impious,
and a manifest wrong to the interests of princes and states, which are weakened and
empoverished by it.
ELLICOTT, "(4) We are sold.—See above, Esther 3:9.
To be destroyed. . . .—Literally, to destroy and to kill, and to cause to perish. The
identical words used in the king’s proclamation for the destruction of the Jews.
Herein Esther at once makes confession of her nationality, and relying on the king’s
still recent gratitude to one of the race, aided by his present cordiality to herself, she
risks, as indeed she can no longer help doing, the fate of herself and her race on the
momentary impulse of her fickle lord. Happily for her, God has willed that these,
perhaps at any other time untrustworthy grounds of reliance, shall suffice. The
“hearts of kings are in His rule and governance,” and now the heart of one is
“disposed and turned, as it seemeth best to His godly wisdom.”
Although the enemy. . . .—The meaning of this clause is not quite clear. The literal
translation is, although (or because) the enemy is not equal to (i.e., does not make up

for) the king’s hurt. This may mean (a) that Haman, though willing to pay a large
sum into the royal treasury, cannot thereby make up for the loss which the king
must incur by wholesale massacre being carried on in his realm; or (b) “were we
merely to be sold into slavery, instead of being killed outright, I should have said
nothing, because the enemy was not one worth the king’s while to trouble himself
about.” We prefer the former view. The word “enemy” is that translated adversary,
in Esther 7:6, and properly means one who oppresses, afflicts, distresses. The word
which is, literally, equal to, comparable with, has already occurred in Esther 3:8;
Esther 5:13.
TRAPP, "Esther 7:4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain,
and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my
tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.
Ver. 4. For we are sold] i.e. Given up wholly into the power of the enemy, as that
which a man hath bought with his money, is his own to dispose of. She refers,
doubtless, to the sum proffered by Haman, Esther 3:9, not fearing the face of so
potent an enemy, nor going behind his back to set him out in his colours; yea,
though her discourse could not but somewhat reflect upon the king, who had given
Haman his consent.
I, and my people] She makes it a common cause, and saith to her countrymen, as
once David did to Abiathar, 1 Samuel 22:23, or as Charles V said to Julius
Pestugius, who complained that he had been much wronged by the duke of Saxony,
Have a little patience, thy cause shall be my cause, neither will I sit down till I have
seen you some way righted. See Esther 7:3.
To be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish] These were the very words of that bloody
decree which she purposely maketh use of, that he might be sensible of what he had
consented to, and might see that she complained not without cause. But what a case
was Haman in at the hearing of this! and how did he now repent him, but too late, of
ever having a hand in so bloody a business! His iniquity was now full, and the bottle
of his wickedness, filled up to the brim with those bitter waters, was even about to
sink to the bottom. His gallows was finished last night, and now it groaned hard for
him, that he might be destroyed, slain, and made to perish.
- eque enim lex iustior ulla est,
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.
But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen] Though it had been a hard
and sad condition for a queen, especially (which yet was Hecuba’s case and
Zenobia’s), yet it would not be grievous to them to sacrifice their liberty to the
service of their life: the Gibeonites were glad they might live upon any terms, Joshua

9:24-25. Masters might slay their bondservants, but that was counted a cruelty, and
when one did it at Rome, he was amerced by the censor; many times they were
manumitted for their good service, and came to great estates.
I had held my tongue] Silence is in some cases a crying sin. Taciturnity, I confess, is
sometimes a virtue, but not at all where it tends to the betraying of a good cause, or
the detriment of the labouring Church. "For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest," &c., Isaiah 62:1. Terentius, that noble
general, told Valens, the Arian emperor, that he had abandoned the victory and sent
it to the enemy, by his persecuting God’s people, and favouring heretics ( iceph. 1.
11, c. 40). That was an excellent saying of Jerome to Vigilantius, Meam iniuriam
patienter tul/i, &c., while the wrong thou didst reached only to myself I took it
patiently, but thy wickedness against God I cannot bear with; so was that of
Oecolampadius to Servetus (blaming him for his sharpness to the self-same
purpose). And, lastly, that of Luther in a letter to his friend Staupicius, Inveniar
sane superbus, &c., Let me be accounted proud, peremptory, passionate, or what
men please, so that I be not found guilty of a sinful silence when called to speak for
God.
Although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage] q.d. It is not his ten
thousand talents, Esther 3:9, nor all that he is worth, and ten more such as he is,
that can make up the loss that the king is sure to sustain by the slaughter of the
Jews, a people painful and prayerful (this Daxius made high account of, Ezra 6:16),
useful and profitable, careful to maintain good works in St Paul’s sense, Titus 3:8,
that is, such as were noted to exceed and excel others in witty inventions, to be their
craftmasters, and faithtul to their trust. Besides, if they be taken away, great
damage shall redound to the king’s revenue, by non-payment of toll, tribute, and
custom, as those malignants could allege, Ezra 4:12, a thing that princes usually are
very sensible Of. Or if there should be lucrum in arca, money in the box, yet there
would be damnum in conscientia, damnation in the conscience, the foul blur of
blood guiltiness would lie heavy, both upon the king’s conscience, and his name
among all nations. The Vulgate rendereth this text thus, unc autem hostis noster
est, cuius crudelitas reduadat in regem. And now he is our enemy, whose cruelty
reflecteth upon the king. Tremellius thus, Sed non est hostis iste utilis, damnosus est
regi; but now this enemy is no way profitable, but to the king disadvantageous. This
the king considers not, and the enemy cares not, so that he may serve his own turn,
and satisfy his murderous mind.
COKE, "Esther 7:4. But if we had been sold for bond-men, &c.— Would to God we
had been sold for bond-men and bond-women! then I would have held my peace:
although our enemy is not of so much worth that damage should be brought on the
king. Houbigant. Esther means, that Haman was not a man of such consequence as
to countervail the infamy which would fall on the king, and the loss which his
kingdom would sustain, by the sacrifice of a whole nation to his resentment.
WHEDO , "4. We are sold — Allusion to Haman’s offer to pay into the king”s

treasury ten thousand talents. Esther 3:9.
Destroyed… slain… perish — She quotes the very words of the fearful edict, (Esther
3:13,) and thus gives a most telling point and emphasis to her plea.
Although the enemy — This sentence is obscure, and, perhaps, Esther meant that it
should be ambiguous. The common version conveys the meaning that if the Jews
were all sold into slavery, their enemy, who brought that woe upon them, could not,
by any payment into the king’s treasury, recompense him for the loss he would
sustain. But the Hebrew seems to make this last sentence give a reason for Esther’s
keeping silence; namely, because ( ‫כי‬ ) she does not consider the enemy worthy of the
trouble and injury it must cost the king to punish him, and counteract the decree of
death that has gone forth against the Jews. The enemy to whom she contemptuously
refers is, of course, Haman.
Countervail — ‫,שׁוה‬ the Kal participal, meaning, to be equal with; to be compared
with. ‫,נזק‬ damage, may be here taken in the sense of injurious trouble, annoyance,
vexation.
PULPIT, "For we are sold, I and my people. Haman has paid our price, has given
ten thousand talents for us, and you, O king, have sold us to him. The reproach is
covert, but clearly contained in the words; and so the king must have understood
Esther. To be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. The use of three synonyms for
one and the same thing is not mere verbiage, but very expressive. "We are sold, all
of us, to be overwhelmed in one universal, promiscuous, unsparing destruction."
Although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. "Although, even in
that case, the enemy (Haman) could not (by the payment that he has made)
compensate the king for the damage that he would suffer by losing so many
subjects." So Gesenius, Rambach, Dathe, and others. But it is simpler, and Perhaps
better, to understand the passage as Bertheau does: "for the enemy (Haman) is not
worthy to vex the king," or "is not worth vexing the king about."
5 King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he?
Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a
thing?”

CLARKE, "Who is he, and where is he - There is a wonderful abruptness and
confusion in the original words, highly expressive of the state of mind in which the king
then was: ‫כן‬ ‫לעשות‬ ‫לבו‬ ‫מלאו‬ ‫אשר‬ ‫הוא‬ ‫זה‬ ‫ואי‬ ‫זה‬ ‫הוא‬ ‫מי‬ mi hu zeh veey zeh hu asher melao libbo
laasoth ken.
“Who? He? This one? And where? This one? He? Who hath filled his heart to do
thus?” He was at once struck with the horrible nature of a conspiracy so cruel and
diabolic.
GILL, "Then the King Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the
queen,.... The words in the original text lie thus, "and the King Ahasuerus said, and he
said to Esther the queen"; which doubling of the word does not signify, as Jarchi
suggests, that before he spoke to her by a messenger, or middle person, but, now he
knew she was of a royal family, he spoke to her himself; but it is expressive of the ruffle
of his mind, and the wrath and fury he was in, that he said it again and again, with a
stern countenance and great vehemence of speech:
who is he? and where is he? who is the man? and where does he live?
that durst presume in his heart to do so; that has boldness, impudence, and
courage enough to perpetrate so vile an action: or "that has filled his heart" (i); the devil
no doubt filled his heart to do it, see Act_5:3, but the king had either forgot the decree
he had granted, and the countenance he had given him to execute it; or, if he
remembered it, he was now enraged that he should be drawn in to such an action by
him; and perhaps till now was ignorant of Esther's descent, and knew not that she would
be involved in the decree.
HE RY, "The king stands amazed at the remonstrance, and asks (Est_7:5) “Who is
he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? What! contrive the
murder of the queen and all her friends? Is there such a man, such a monster rather, in
nature? Who is he, and where is he, whose heart has filled him to do so?” Or, Who hath
filled his heart. He wonders, 1. That any one should be so bad as to think such a thing;
Satan certainly filled his heart. 2. That any one should be so bold as to do such a thing,
should have his heart so fully set in him to do wickedly, should be so very daring. Note,
(1.) It is hard to imagine that there should be such horrid wickedness committed in the
world as really there is. Who, where is he, that dares, presumes, to question the being of
God and his providence, to banter his oracles, profane his name, persecute his people,
and yet bid defiance to his wrath? Such there are, to think of whom is enough to make
horror take hold of us, Psa_119:53. (2.) We sometimes startle at the mention of that evil
which yet we ourselves are chargeable with. Ahasuerus is amazed at that wickedness
which he himself is guilty of; for he consented to that bloody edict against the Jews.
Thou art the man, might Esther too truly have said.
K&D, "Est_7:5
The king, whose indignation was excited by what he had just heard, asks with an
agitation, shown by the repetition of the ‫ר‬ ֶ‫ּאמ‬ ַ‫:ו‬ “Who is he, and where is he, whose heart

hath filled him (whom his heart hath filled) to do so?” Evil thoughts proceed from the
heart, and fill the man, and impel him to evil deeds: Isa_44:20; Ecc_8:11; Mat_15:19.
BE SO , "Esther 7:5. Then the king said, Who is he, and where is he, that durst
presume in his heart to do so? — What! contrive the murder of the queen and all
her friends? Is there such a man, or such a monster, rather, in nature? The
expressions are short and doubled, as proceeding from a discomposed and enraged
mind. The Hebrew is, Whose heart has filled him, as in the margin; or, Who hath
filled his heart, to do so? He wonders that any one should be so wicked as to
conceive such a thing, or that any one should be so bold as to attempt to effect it;
that is, to circumvent him, and procure a decree, whereby not only his revenue
should be so much injured, and so many of his innocent subjects destroyed, but his
queen also involved in the same destruction. We sometimes startle at that evil which
we ourselves are chargeable with. Ahasuerus is amazed at that wickedness which he
himself was guilty of: for he had consented to the bloody edict; so that Esther might
have said, Thou art the man!
TRAPP, "Esther 7:5 Then 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?
Ver. 5. Then the king Ahasuerus answered, &c.] It seems he did not yet, by all that
Esther had said, understand whom she meant; so high an opinion he had of Haman
his minion, the only ornament and bulwark of the empire, the greatest publicola,
and most esteemed patriot. The king, therefore, as not thinking him so near at hand,
hastily asketh, He said and said (so the Heb. hath it) to the queen.
Who is he, and where is he] Who is that sirrah, he, and where is that sirrah, he?
Quis hic ipse, et ubi hic ille? words of utmost indignation and readiness to be
revenged; such as were those of Charles V emperor: If that villain were here
(speaking of Farnesius, the pope’s general, who had ravished certain ladies) I would
kill him with mine own hand; or those of fiery Friar, who, openly in the pulpit at
Antwerp, preaching to the people, wished that Luther were there, that he might tear
him with his teeth (Paraei Medul. Hist. profan. Erasm. Ephesians 1:16, ad
obtrectat). But could this king possibly so soon forget what himself had not two
months before granted to be done against Esther’s people (which was with his right
hand to cut off his left)? or did he not all this while know what countrywoman his
beloved Esther was? and might he not expect that the Hamanists should come and
take her forcibly from him to execution, by virtue of his own edict, as Daniel’s
adversaries had dealt by him, though Darius laboured till the going down of the sun
to deliver him, but could not? Daniel 6:14; and as Stephen Gardiner and his
complices attempted to do by Queen Catharine Parr, had not her husband, Henry
VIII, rated them away, and graciously rescued her out of their bloody fingers?
That durst presume in his heart to do so?] Heb. Whose heart hath filled him to do
so? Cuius cor persuasit ipsi, so Vatablus. Whose heart hath persuaded him thus to

do. The devil had filled Haman’s heart, sitting abrood thereon, and hatching there
this horrid plot, Acts 5:3. But (to do the devil right) Haman had suffered the sun
(nay, many suns) to go down upon his wrath, and thereby given place to the devil,
Ephesians 4:26-27. emo sibi de suo palpet (saith an ancient), quisque sibi Satan
est; Let no man deceive his own heart, each man is a Satan to himself; and though
men bless themselves from having to do with the devil, and spit at his very name, yet
they fetch not up their spittle low enough; they spit him out of their mouths, but not
out of their hearts, as "being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit,
malignity," Romans 1:29. Haman’s heart thus stuffed might well have said to him at
the gallows, as the heart of Apollodorus the tyrant seemed to say to him, who
dreamed one night that he was flayed by the Scythians, and boiled in a cauldron,
and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle, It is I that have drawn thee to all
this. Eγω σοι τουτων αιτια. Those in hell cry so surely.
WHEDO , "5. Who is he — If the king now suspected, as probably he did, who the
guilty person was, he would naturally, first, express his emotion and surprise as
here represented. “He affects to doubt,” says Rawlinson, “that he may express his
anger at the act apart from all personal considerations.”
Probably both Haman and the king now first learned, and were surprised to find,
that Esther was a Jewess.
Who… is he that durst presume — Literally, as the margin, whose heart has filled
him to do thus. The evil and ambitious man is filled with foul thoughts and purposes
from the corrupt fountain of his own wicked heart. Comp. Matthew 15:19.
COFFMA , "Verse 5
THE KI G'S REQUEST FOR THE ADVERSARY'S IDE TITY
"Then spake the king Ahasuerus and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and
where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, An adversary
and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king
and the queen. And 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 Esther
the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king."
At this juncture, the king began to get the whole picture. Indeed it had been Haman
who had concocted that evil story about the Jews, had advised their destruction, and
with the king's ring had himself mailed out the decree calling for their slaughter. In
his anger, the king arose and left the banquet; and Haman was astute enough to
know that his goose was indeed cooked. aturally, Haman pleaded with Esther to
spare his life; and when it became apparent that she would not help him, he fell at
her feet imploring her. "He was still prostrate before the reclining queen, probably
clasping her feet as a suppliant, when the furious king returned from his walk in the
garden."[1] "Like the Greeks and Romans, the Persians reclined at their meals on
sofas or couches."[2]

We have no agreement with, "Some commentators (who) have criticized Esther for
not interceding for Haman."[3] However, such writers forget that as long as Haman
lived, he was a deadly threat to the Jewish people. Esther was wise enough to see
that although Haman was at the moment defeated; if he had survived, he might
have found a way to achieve his purpose.
LA GE, "Esther 7:5 with its twice-repeated ‫ֶר‬‫מ‬‫ֹא‬ ‫ַיּ‬‫ו‬: Then the king Ahasuerus
answered, and said unto Esther the queen, by its solemn title: “The king to the
queen,” indicates the great importance of these words and of the moment. The king
of the great empire here addressed her, who was a daughter of her people, but also
the queen in this great realm. At the same time the twice-repeated: “he said,”
reveals the agitation of the king, to which also corresponds the double question:
Who and where is he?‫ִבּוֹ‬‫ל‬ ‫ָאוֹ‬‫ל‬ְ‫מ‬ ‫ר‬ֶ‫שׁ‬ֲ‫:א‬ that durst presume in his heart to do so.—We
might expect it to read:” Who had filled his heart, “viz. with the thought to do so.
But it is the heart from which proceed the thoughts, and which determines the rest
of the man to conclusive purposes ( Isaiah 44:20; Ecclesiastes 8:11; Matthew 15:19).
[F 7]
6 Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile
Haman!”
Then Haman was terrified before the king and
queen.
GILL, "And Esther said, the adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman,....
Who was not only an enemy to her and her people, but an adversary to the king, by
advising and persuading him to that which was to the loss of his revenues, as well as of
his reputation; also, she pointed at him, and gave him his just character; her charge of
wickedness upon him, as it was true, it was honourably made to his face before the king,
of which, if he could, he had the opportunity of exculpating himself:
then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen; gave visible signs of his
confusion, consternation, and trouble of mind, by the fall of his countenance, his pale
looks, his trembling limbs, and quivering lips, being struck dumb, and not able to speak

one word for himself.
HE RY, "Esther plainly charged Haman with it before his face: “Here he is, let him
speak for himself, for therefore he is invited: The adversary and enemy is this wicked
Haman (Est_7:6); it is he that has designed our murder, and, which is worse, has basely
drawn the king in to be particeps criminisa partaker of his crime, ignorantly agreeing to
it.”
V. Haman is soon apprehensive of his danger: He was afraid before the king and
queen; and it was time for him to fear when the queen was his prosecutor, the king his
judge, and his own conscience a witness against him; and the surprising operations of
Providence against him that same morning could not but increase his fear. Now he has
little joy of his being invited to the banquet of wine, but finds himself in straits when he
thought himself in the fulness of his sufficiency. He is cast into a net by his own feet.
K&D, "Est_7:6
Esther replies: “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” Then was Haman
afraid before the king and the queen. ‫ת‬ ַ‫ע‬ ְ‫ב‬ִ‫נ‬ as in 1Ch_21:30; Dan_8:17.
BE SO , "Esther 7:6. Esther said, The enemy is this wicked Haman — It is he that
has designed our murder, and I charge him with it before his face: here he is; let
him speak for himself, for therefore he was invited. Then Haman was afraid before
the king and the queen — It was time for him to fear, when the queen was his
prosecutor, the king his judge, and his own conscience a witness against him; and
the surprising operations of providence against him that same morning could not
but increase his fear. ow he has little joy of his being invited to the banquet of
wine, but finds himself in straits when he thought himself in the fulness of his
sufficiency.
TRAPP, "Esther 7:6 And Esther said, The adversary and enemy [is] this wicked
Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
Ver. 6. And Esther said] ow she found her time to strike while the iron was hot;
she therefore layeth hold upon the opportunity that God had even thrust into her
hand, and laying aside all base fear, pointeth out the enemy present, and painteth
him out in his proper colours. A well chosen season, saith one, is the greatest
advantage of any action; which as it is seldom found in haste, so it is too often lost in
delay. It is not for Queen Esther now to drive off any longer. The negligent spirit
cries, Cras, Domine. Tomorrow thou shalt pray for me, said Pharaoh to Moses.
Fools are ever futuring, semper victuri, as Seneca hath it, but "a wise man’s heart
discerneth both time and judgment," Ecclesiastes 8:5. The men of Issachar in
David’s days were in great account, because they had understanding of the times to
know what Israel ought to do, and when to do it, 1 Chronicles 12:32.
The adversary] Heb. The man adversary, the Lycanthropos, the man of might that

distresseth us, angustiator, that is, our calamity; as the people of Rome once, by an
elegant solecism, cried out, Calamitas nostra Magnus est Our distress is great,
meaning of it Pompey, surnamed Magnus.
And enemy] That is, the utter enemy, that sworn swordman of Satan, the old
manslayer, from whom Haman hath drawn this ancient enmity, Genesis 3:15.
Is this wicked Haman] Pessimus iste, such a most wicked one, this homo hominum
quantum est, pessimus, homo post homines natos nequissimus, as wicked a man as
goes on two legs, Bipedum nequissimus, a merum scelus, a man made up of mischief,
a very breathing devil. Cicero telleth of one Tubulus, who was praetor a little before
his time, so wicked a wretch, ut eius nomen non hominis sed vitii esse videretur, that
his name seemed to be, not the name of a man, but of vice itself. And Josephus saith
of Antipater, that his life was a very mystery of iniquity, Kακιας µυστηριον. Think
the same of Haman, so portentously, so peerlessly wicked and malicious, that Esther
can find no word bad enough for him, unless it be Harang, that naughtiest of all
naughts; as St Paul could call sin no worse than by its own name, sinful sin,
exceeding sinful, Romans 7:13. Tiberius was rightly characterized by his tutor
Theodorus Gadareus, dirt kned with blood. Pηλος αιµατι πεφυραµενος. Haman was
such another, if not worse, and now he hears of it; for never till now did the man
adversary hear his true title. Before some had styled him noble, others great; some
magnificent, and some perhaps virtuous; only Esther gives him his own, wicked
Haman. Ill deserving greatness doth in vain promise to itself a perpetuity of
applause. There will be those that will deal plainly, and call a spade a spade. Thus
Jeremiah dealt with Jehoiakim, and Ezekiel with Zedekiah, whom he calleth naught
and polluted. Go, tell that fox, saith our Saviour, concerning Herod; and God shall
smite thee, thou whited wall, saith Paul to Ananias. But what a courage had Esther
to speak thus to the king, and of his favourite, and before his face! This was the
work of her faith, and the fruit of her prayer.
Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen] He was amazed and
amated, troubled and terrified.
Obstupuit, steteruntque comae, vox faucibus haesit (Virg.).
In the fulness of his sufficiency he fell into straits, Job 20:22. So that being
convinced in his own conscience that the queen’s accusation was very true, and that
the king knew it to be so, he had nothing to say for himself, he was even gagged, as it
were, or muzzled, as Matthew 22:12-13, according to that of David, Psalms 63:11,
"the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped." And again, Psalms 12:3, The
Lord shall cut off lying lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Here we see
how suddenly wicked ones may be cast down upon the discovery of their
wickedness, in the height of their pride, in the ruff of their jollity, as was
ebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Herod, Haman. Surely as thunder commonly is heard

when the sky seemeth most clear; so this man saw himself enveloped in a storm in
one of the fairest days that ever befell him.
LA GE, "Esther 7:6. Esther still hesitates to name Haman, but at last brings the
predicate into prominence: The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.—She
does not say: “The evil-disposed person,” viz. of whom she is speaking, but without
the article, ‫ַר‬‫צ‬ ‫ישׁ‬ִ‫,א‬ in order to make as strikingly prominent as possible the
conception of the man so inimical. Haman trembled; for ‫ַת‬‫ע‬ְ‫ב‬ִ‫נ‬ means more than that
he was simply alarmed (comp. 1 Chronicles 21:30; Daniel 8:17, and ‫ים‬ִ‫ִעוּתּ‬‫בּ‬, Psalm
88:17; Job 6:4).
7 The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went
out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing
that the king had already decided his fate, stayed
behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.
CLARKE, "Haman stood up - He rose from the table to make request for his life,
as soon as the king had gone out; and then he fell on his knees before the queen, she still
sitting upon her couch.
GILL, "And the king, arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath, went
into the palace garden,.... Not being able to bear the sight of Haman, who had done
such an injury both to himself and to the queen; as also that his wrath might subside,
and he become more composed and sedate, and be able coolly to deliberate what was
fitting to be done in the present case:
and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; hoping
that her tender heart might be wrought upon to show mercy to him, and be prevailed on
to entreat the king to spare his life; and this request he made in the most submissive
manner:
for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king; he
perceived it both by the king's countenance, by the rage he went out in, and by the
threatening words which he very probably uttered as he went out.

HE RY 7-8, "Here, I. The king retires in anger. He rose from table in a great passion,
and went into the palace garden to cool himself and to consider what was to be done,
Est_7:7. He sent not for his seven wise counsellors who knew the times, being ashamed
to consult them about the undoing of that which he had rashly done without their
knowledge or advice; but he went to walk in the garden awhile, to compare in his
thoughts what Esther had now informed him of with what had formerly passed between
him and Haman. And we may suppose him, 1. Vexed at himself, that he should be such a
fool as to doom a guiltless nation to destruction, and his own queen among the rest,
upon the base suggestions of a self-seeking man, without examining the truth of his
allegations. Those that do things with self-will reflect upon them afterwards with self-
reproach. 2. Vexed at Haman whom he had laid in his bosom, that he should be such a
villain as to abuse his interest in him to draw him to consent to so wicked a measure.
When he saw himself betrayed by one he had caressed he was full of indignation at him;
yet he would say nothing till he had taken time for second thoughts, to see whether they
would make the matter better or worse than it first appeared, that he might proceed
accordingly. When we are angry we should pause awhile before we come to any
resolution, as those that have a rule over our own spirits and are governed by reason.
II. Haman becomes a humble petitioner to the queen for his life. He might easily
perceived by the king's hastily flying out of the room that there was evil determined
against him. For the wrath of a king, such a king, is as the roaring of a lion and as
messengers of death; and now see, 1. How mean Haman looks, when he stands up first
and then falls down at Esther's feet, to beg she would save his life and take all he had.
Those that are most haughty, insolent, and imperious, when they are in power and
prosperity, are commonly the most abject and poor-spirited when the wheel turns upon
them. Cowards, they say, are most cruel, and then consciousness of their cruelty makes
them the more cowardly. 2. How great Esther looks, who of late had been neglected and
doomed to the slaughter tanquam ovis - as a sheep; now her sworn enemy owns that he
lies at her mercy, a d begs his life at her hand. Thus did God regard the low estate of his
handmaiden and scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts, Luk_1:48, Luk_
1:51. Compare with this that promise made to the Philadelphian church (Rev_3:9), I will
make those of the synagogue of Satan to come and to worship before thy feet and to
know that I have loved thee. The day is coming when those that hate and persecute
God's chosen ones would gladly be beholden to them. Give us of your oil. Father
Abraham, send Lazarus. The upright shall have dominion in the morning.
III. The king returns yet more exasperated against Haman. The more he thinks of him
the worse he thinks of him and of what he had done. It was but lately that every thing
Haman said and did, even that which was most criminal, was taken well and construed
to his advantage; now, on the contrary, what Haman did that was not only innocent, but
a sign of repentance, is ill taken, and, without colour of reason, construed to his
disadvantage. He lay in terror at Esther's feet, to beg for his life. What! (says the king)
will he force the queen also before me in the house? Not that he thought he had any such
intention, but having been musing on Haman's design to slay the queen, and finding him
in this posture, he takes occasion from it thus to vent his passion against Haman, as a
man that would not scruple at the greatest and most impudent piece of wickedness. “He
designed to slay the queen, and to slay her wish me in the house; will he in like manner
force her? What! ravish her first and then murder her? He that had a design upon her
life may well be suspected to have a design upon her chastity.”
JAMISO ,"Est_7:7-10. The king causes Haman to be hanged on his own gallows.
he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king — When the

king of Persia orders an offender to be executed, and then rises and goes into the
women’s apartment, it is a sign that no mercy is to be hoped for. Even the sudden rising
of the king in anger was the same as if he had pronounced sentence.
K&D, "The king in his wrath arose from the banquet of wine, and went into the
garden of the house (‫ם‬ ָ‫ק‬ is here a pregnant expression, and is also combined with ‫ת‬ַ ִ‫ל־‬ ֶ‫;)א‬
but Haman remained standing to beg for his life to Queen Esther (‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬ ‫שׁ‬ ֵ ִ as in Est_4:8),
“for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king” (‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ ָⅴ, completed, i.e.,
determined; comp. 1Sa_20:7, 1Sa_20:9; 1Sa_25:17, and elsewhere); and hence that he
had no mercy to expect from him, unless the queen should intercede for him.
BE SO , "Esther 7:7. And the king arising from the banquet in his wrath — As
disdaining the company and sight of so ungrateful and audacious a person; went
into the palace-garden — To cool and allay his troubled and inflamed spirits, being
in a great commotion by a variety of passions boiling and struggling within him;
and to consider with himself the heinousness of Haman’s crime, the mischief which
himself had like to have done by his own rashness, and what punishment was fit to
be inflicted on so vile a miscreant. Haman stood up to make request for his life to
Esther — He first stood up, and then fell down at her feet, to beg she would save his
life, and take all he had. They that are most haughty, insolent, and imperious, when
they are in power and prosperity, are commonly the most abject and poor-spirited,
on a reverse of condition and circumstances. Esther’s sworn enemy now owns that
he lies at her mercy, and begs his life at her hand. Thus did God regard the low
estate of his handmaiden. For he saw that there was evil determined against him —
This he discerned by the violent commotion of the king’s mind, apparent in his
countenance, and by his going out of the room in a great rage.
TRAPP, "Esther 7:7 And 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.
Ver. 7. And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath] As not able to
abide the sight of such a wretch, he flings away in a chafe. This wrath of the king
was to Haman a messenger of death; and so he apprehended it, as appears by that
which followeth. Ashamed the king was, and vexed, that his favour and power had
been so much abused, to the hazarding of the queen’s life, and the taking away of
the lives of so many innocents. It troubled him also to consider how he had lost his
love upon so unworthy a wretch, and trusted him with his secrets whom now he
findeth treacherous, and all for his own ends. This king should first have fallen out
with himself for his rashness, and then have said, as Alphonsus, that renowned king,
did in a speech to the pope’s ambassadors; he professed that he did not so much
wonder at his courtiers’ ingratitude to him, who had raised sundry of them from
mean to great estates, as at his own to God. This one consideration would have
cooled him better than the repeating of the Greek alphabet, or his taking a turn in
the palace garden, before he passed sentence upon the delinquent. Rex amici
memor, paulisper cunctatur, deliberandique gratia modicum secessit, saith Severus;

that is, the king, mindful of the friendship that had been between him and Haman,
maketh a pause, and retireth for a while, that he may deliberate with himself what
to do. If these were the reasons, it was a piece of prudence in the king, for anger is
known to be an evil counsellor, and as smoke in a man’s eyes hindereth his sight, so
doth rash anger the use of reason. Hence wise men have refrained the act when
angry. Plutarch telleth of one Architas, that displeased with his servants for their
sloth, he flung from them, saying, Valete, quoniam vobis irascor Farewell, for I am
angry with you, and may not therefore meddle with you. Vapulares, nisi irascerer, I
would pay thee, but that I am displeased at thee, said Plato to a servant of his. And
of Alphonsus, king of Arragon, it is reported, that vexed at his cupbearer’s
stubbornness, he drew his dagger and ran after him; but before he came at him he
threw away his dagger, ne iam prehensum iratus feriret, lest he should catch him
and kill him in the heat of his anger (Val. Max. Christ. 1. 5, c. 20). This was better
than Saul’s casting a javelin at Jonathan, Alexander’s killing of his friend Clitus
and others in his drink, Herod’s commanding the keepers of the prison to execution,
Acts 12:19. Whether Ahasuerus went into the garden (as Jonathan took his weapons
and went into the field) to divert and mitigate his anger is uncertain. Possibly he
might do that to edge and increase it. Of Tiberius it is said, that the more he
meditated revenge the more did time and delay sharpen it; and the farther off he
threatened, the heavier the stroke fell: Lentus in meditando tristioribus dictis
atrocia facta coniungebat (Tacit.). Most certain it is, that Haman got little by the
king’s going into the garden; for upon his return he was the more enraged, empe
impiis omnia ad malum cooperantur, saith Lavater, to the wicked all things work
together for the worse.
And Haman stood up to make request for his life] See what a strange turn of things
here was all upon the sudden. He that was bowed unto by all men, is now upon his
knees before a woman. He that was erst the professed enemy of the Jews, is
suppliant to a Jewess. He that had contrived the death of that whole people, is now
begging for his own life. He that had provided a gallows for Mordecai, fears nothing
more now than that himself shall be hanged on it.
Discite iustitiam moniti, et non temnere sanctos.
Haman hoped that Esther would have interceded for him to the king, but there was
little reason for it: a drowning man will catch hold on any twig. Esther knew him
too well to befriend him so far. Let him have judgment without mercy, thinks she,
who showed no mercy.
Quisquam nec ipsum supplicem,
Quamvis iacentem sublevet. Psal. cix.
Let him lie for me, and die according to his deserts. "A man that doeth violence to

the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him," Proverbs 28:17; to
mediate for such a one is no mercy; neither is it any alms deed, as we say; for, save a
rogue from the gallows, and he will cut your throat if he can, as the proverb hath it,
and experience hath confirmed it. Magnentius slew Constans, the emperor, A. D.
337, who had formerly saved his life from the soldiers’ fury. Parry, the traitor,
offered the like to Queen Elizabeth, who had pardoned him after that he had been
condemned to die for burglary. Michael Balbus slew his master, Leo Armenius, the
emperor, that same night that he had pardoned him, and released him out of prison.
Those that are habituated and hardened in wickedness will not be mollified or
mended by any kindness that is shown them.
For he saw that there was evil determined against him] Vidit quod completum esset
malum, rem ad restim rediisse, he perceived himself to be altogether in as ill a
condition as Judge Belknap in Richard II’s time, who said there wanted but a
hurdle, a horse, and a halter to have him to the place where he might have his due;
where he might wear a Tyburn-tippet, as father Latimer afterwards phraseth it.
COKE, "Esther 7:7. The king—went into the palace-garden— Partly as disdaining
the company of so infamous a person as Haman; partly to cool and allay his spirit,
boiling and struggling with a variety of passions; and partly to consider within
himself the heinousness of Haman's crime, the mischief which himself had nearly
done by his own rashness, and what punishment was fit to be inflicted on so vile a
miscreant.
CO STABLE 7-10, "Verses 7-10
Ahasuerus" decision7:7-10
The fact that his enemy sat in his presence at that very moment evidently made the
king pause before issuing his obvious verdict. He wanted to think about it and
walked out into his garden to do so. Upon returning, what he saw confirmed his
decision. Haman found himself trapped between an angry king and an offended
queen. Ironically, this enemy of the Jews ended up pleading for his life with a
Jewess! [ ote: Breneman, p350.] Haman fell at Esther"s feet to beg as she reclined,
but the king misunderstood his intentions when he reentered the banquet room
unexpectedly ( Esther 7:8).
". . . one must remember that in antiquity very strong feelings and strict regulations
centered on the harem.... Had Haman knelt as much as a foot away from the
queen"s couch, the king"s reaction could still have been justified." [ ote: Moore,
Esther , p72.]
"A Targum adds that the angel Gabriel pushed Haman as the king entered the
room!" [ ote: Huey, p826.]
Esther"s words had so predisposed Ahasuerus against Haman that the king viewed
Haman"s posture in the worst possible light. Covering the face of a condemned

person was evidently customary in such cases ( Esther 7:8; cf. Esther 6:12). [ ote:
Gordis, p56; Baldwin, p93.]
Harbonah"s suggestion that they hang Haman on the gallows he had built for
Mordecai drove the final nail in Haman"s coffin ( Esther 7:9). Certainly Ahasuerus
had not known of Haman"s plan to execute the king"s savior. We do not know if
Esther asked for mercy for Haman or not. In either case, the king carried out his
execution ( Esther 7:10). Thus ended the life of one of the most hostile anti-Semitic
Jew-haters that ever walked the stage of history (cf. Psalm 9:15-16).
PARKER 7-10, "Reprisals
Esther 7-10
WE have seen Esther in the attitude of lifting the index finger; we have now to
consider the attitude of Haman whilst that finger was being pointed at him. The
statement is marked by great simplicity, but also by solemn suggestiveness,—
"Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen" ( Esther 7:6).
Why was he afraid? othing had been stated but simple fact: is it possible that a
man can be terrified by being reminded of simple reality? We may go farther in this
case, and by going farther may increase our wonder. Could not Haman defend
himself? Was it not open to him to say to king Ahasuerus, That is certainly true, but
nothing has been done without the king"s consent, and no writing has been sent
forth that was not sealed with the royal signet: what the queen has said is perfectly
true, but I must hide myself behind the king"s authority? ot a word did he say: he
simply burned with shame; his cheeks were red with fire. How is this? The answer is
plain enough. We do many things with the king"s signet which we have no business
to do. We may be very careful about our little cordon of facts, but all this amounts
to nothing so long as the heart accuses itself. o matter what writings you have,—it
is of no consequence that you point to conversations, and recall incidents, and
remind your interlocutor of certain occurrences, if the thing itself is wrong. There is
something in human nature that gives way at the weakest point. There are defences
that are in reality accusations. To excuse is in very deed to accuse under such
circumstances. Men know this, and yet play the contrary part with great skill and
persistence; they say they have documentary evidence, but they do not tell us how
they procured it; they can produce letters sealed and signed by high authority, but
they never tell the wicked process through which these letters came to be facts. Men,
therefore, soon give way under the pressure of incomplete evidence; the unwritten
law swallows up all the inky documents. Haman had indeed gone to the king, and
told him about a certain people, diverse from the people of Media and Persia, and
had in very truth received the king"s orders to write letters of destruction; but when
all came to all it was the unwritten law that made a coward of Haman. The letters
ought not to have been written; being written, they simply amounted to so much
evidence against the man; the very motive of the letter burned the letter, and thus

made it non-existent; and we are perfectly well aware that we are doing many
things, in statesmanship, in ecclesiastical relations, in personal references, that bear
very distinctly upon this method of procedure. There are laws, there are facts, there
are letters; but all these ought not to have been; they are not in accord with the
eternal unwritten law of righteousness, truth, charity, pureness, godliness, and
therefore when that is pointed out all the documents fall into the fire, crinkle,
blacken, catch the flame, and evaporate in smoke. Thus was Haman afraid before
the king and the queen. Cowardice is traceable to consciousness of wrong-doing.
Haman said to himself, I got the letters, but I ought not to have got them; I could
take off this ring and show it to his majesty, but the ring would take fire and burn
me if I held it up under such circumstances; no, I am a murderer, and I am
discovered. What then took place?
"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" ( Esther 7:7).
That was all! Let me live! Strip me, cast me off, banish me, but—let the poor dog
live! All mock royalties come to that, all false ambitions, all ill-conceived plans, all
selfishness, all murder. Do not hang me! I care for this poor old neck; I will never
speak more, I will only ask for bread and water; only let the dog live! He was a great
man just now;
Haman "sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. And Haman told them
of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things
wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the
princes and servants of the king" ( Esther 5:10-11).
ow he says, Let the dog live! Let the bad man take care! Judas Iscariot, be on thy
guard! Heaven is against thee, and thine own hell hates thee. "There is no peace,
saith my God, to the wicked." You are very clever, you only are asked to the king"s
banquet, you are entrusted with the king"s seal, you are chancellor, premier,
leader,—"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." "How art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" The success of bad men is their
failure. There is no heaven in their gold; it is not gold, it is gilt. How rich the table
is! but Haman cannot eat; the wine is old, but the palate is dead. Walk in the garden
and view the lovely flowers: there is no loveliness to eyes of greed, to eyes of
ambition, to eyes of selfishness, every Eden is lost by the disobedient man. Do not let
me die even in Eden, give me a skin of beast to my back, and let me out of the golden
gate—Let the dog live! There are many valiant men whose valour will one day be
turned into pale cowardice. Only they are valiant who are right; only they are
heroic who love God and keep his commandments; to them death is abolished, the
grave a hole filled up with flowers, blossoming at the top. Who would be wicked—
prosperously wicked, dining with the king, but wicked; drinking wine with the
queen with a murderer"s lips? We may be murderers without shedding blood.
Every man who has broken a heart is a murderer, it matters not whether he be the
highest prelate or supremest minister.

Whatever Ahasuerus did he did quickly. o one ever complained that he was
dilatory. Let justice be done to Xerxes. He was a man of action. It was pointed out to
him that the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who
had spoken good for the king, stood in the house of Haman. The moment Ahasuerus
heard there was a gallows he said, Hang Haman. Circumstances happily coincide—
here is the victim, here is the gallows: a child may complete the syllogism. It is
wonderful how men who have no knowledge of the true God have always discovered
a point of almightiness somewhere. Men who had no God, as we understand that
term, have always had a deific line in their policy, a black line which meant the end.
The Oriental kings realised this ideal of almightiness. Their word was law. Hang
him! and no man dare say, Spare him! How could Haman complain? The gallows
was his own invention; it was made after his own imagination; it was the very height
he liked best for a gallows—not forty-nine cubits high, but the round fifty. How
often he had hanged Mordecai on the preceding night! how he had seen the Jew
dangle in the air, and almost seen birds of carrion come and alight on his shoulder
to look him over with a view to banqueting! How could he complain? This is God"s
law: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." All this we ourselves must
go through. Take care! How much deeper are you going to make that hole? Do you
say you mean to make it about ten feet deeper? then be assured that you have ten
feet farther to fall. Men dig holes for others, and fall into them themselves. Do not
be grave-diggers. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto
wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Our hands
were never made for the forging and hurling of thunderbolts; they were made to
clasp other human hands, to lead the blind, to help the helpless. Yet who does not
rejoice in this law of retribution, worked out on a grand scale, without a sign or
token of pettishness in all its evolution? The universe would not be secure without it.
The wicked man must be stopped somewhere: and how can a man be more
decorously hung than on his own gallows? Is there satire in heaven? Is there just a
faint wreathing of sarcasm on the lips of Justice? Do the powers supreme wait until
the plans of bad men are quite completed, and then make them cut down the harvest
which they themselves sowed in such glee of heart? Bad Prayer of Manasseh , thine
end is the gallows-tree! thou shalt surely be hanged by the neck until thou be dead.
We see thee at thy front door, well painted, well polished, opening upon museum
and picture-gallery and treasure-house; we hear the horses pawing and snorting in
their warm stables, and see the servants flitting about in panoramic activity and
confusion; we speak to thee over thy bags of gold—thou shalt be damned! Say ye to
the wicked, It shall be ill with him: he shall vomit his own successes, and when he is
most ashamed it will be when he most clearly sees his triumphs. Say ye to the
righteous, It shall be well with thee: poor, desolate, and afflicted, carrying seven
burdens when one is enough for thy poor strength; yet at the end, because thou hast
loved thy Lord, it shall be well with thee. Do not attempt to explain God"s "well." It
is a better word than if it had been in the superlative degree. Grammatical increase
would mean moral depletion. It is enough that God says, "Well done." "Well" is
better than "best" in such setting of words.
From what point did Haman proceed to the gallows? From a banquet of wine. Oh to
think of it!—from a banquet to the gallows! There is not such a distance between the

two points as might at first appear. early the worst things in all the world are
banquets. How a man can live in a mansion-house and pray, is a problem which we
can consider even if we cannot answer. It was the rich man in the parable who was
called "fool." We should have been sorry for him under that designation if we had
not first heard his speech; but after hearing his speech we found that no other word
precisely covered the occasion. The house of mourning is better than the house of
feasting. There is a sadness which is to be preferred to laughter. There are funerals
infinitely more desirable than weddings. But we are the victims of the senses; we like
gold and silver, and satin and colour; we rub our skilled fingers over them and say,
Behold the texture! see the lustre! admire the beauty! We are blind within. An awful
irony, that a man should have eyes to see stones and trees, and no eyes wherewith to
see spirits, angels, God! Men drink away their vision; men drown in their cups the
divinity that stirs within them.
LA GE, "Esther 7:7-10. Thereupon the king became at once terribly angry.
Because of his agitation he went aside for a moment, but soon returned, and at once
gave order for the execution of Haman. —Into the palace-garden (comp. Esther
1:5), which was the place to which he retired. This is strikingly expressed by ‫ָם‬‫ק‬. He
did this in order to recover from the first burst of anger, and to consider what was
to be done with Haman. Haman remained standing to make request of his life to
Esther.—‫ְשׁוֹ‬‫פ‬ַ‫נ‬‫ַל־‬‫ע‬, properly, “because of his life” (‫ֵשׁ‬‫קּ‬ִ‫בּ‬ with ‫ַל‬‫ע‬, as in Esther 4:8),
since he saw that on the part of the king there was no more hope for him if Esther
would not intercede for him; strictly: that evil was determined against him by the
king,fully determined (‫ָה‬‫ל‬ָ‫כּ‬ as in 1 Samuel 25:17; Ezra 5:13).
PULPIT, "Esther 7:7, Esther 7:8
Ahasuerus rose up from the banquet "in his wrath"—he could no longer remain
quiet—and entered the palace garden, on which Esther's apartment probably
looked; partly, perhaps, as Bertheau says, to cool the first heat of his fury in the
open air; partly to give himself time for reflection, and consider what he would do.
Haman also rose from table, and standing near her, began pleading with Esther for
his life, which he felt that she, and she alone, could save. Evil, he saw, was
determined against him by the king; but a woman's heart might be more tender,
and he might perhaps move the queen to allay the storm that she had raised, and
induce the king to spare him. He therefore pleaded with all the earnestness in his
power, and at last threw himself forward on the couch whore Esther reclined,
seeking perhaps to grasp her feet or her garments, as is usual with suppliants in the
East. At this crisis the king returned, and misconstruing Haman's action, or
pretending to do so, exclaimed aloud, "Will he even force the queen with me in the
house?" The terrible charge brought matters to a conclusion—it was taken as a call
on the attendants to seize the culprit and execute him. They covered his face,
apparently, as that of a condemned man not worthy any more to see the light,
according to a practice common among, the Romans (Liv; 1.26; Cic. 'pro Rabir;
4.13) and the Macedonians (Q. Curt; 'Vit. Alex.,' vi. 8), but not elsewhere mentioned
as Persian.

8 Just as the king returned from the palace
garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on
the couch where Esther was reclining.
The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the
queen while she is with me in the house?”
As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they
covered Haman’s face.
BAR ES, "Like the Greeks and Romans, the Persians reclined at their meals on sofas
or couches. Haman, in the intensity of his supplication, had thrown himself upon the
couch at Esther’s feet.
They covered Haman’s face - The Macedonians and the Romans are known to
have commonly muffled the heads of prisoners before executing them. It may have also
been a Persian custom.
CLARKE, "Will he force the queen - On the king’s return he found him at the
queen’s knees; and, professing to think that he intended to do violence to her honor,
used the above expressions; though he must have known that, in such circumstances,
the thought of perpetrating an act of this kind could not possibly exist.
They covered Haman’s face - This was a sign of his being devoted to death: for the
attendants saw that the king was determined on his destruction. When a criminal was
condemned by a Roman judge, he was delivered into the hands of the serjeant with these
words: I, lictor; caput obnubito, arbori infelici suspendito. “Go, serjeant; cover his head,
and hang him on the accursed tree.”
GILL, "Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the
banquet of wine,.... Being a little cooler, and more composed in his mind, see See Gill
on Est_1:5.

Esther 7 commentary

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Esther 7 commentary