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Esther Chapter
Seven
New King James Version
(NKJV)
Esther 7:1. So the king and
Haman went to dine with Queen Esther.
YLT 1And the king cometh in, and
Haman, to drink with Esther the queen,
So the king and
Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.
Or, "to drink with
her"F5לשתות "ut biberent",
V. L. Tigurine version; "ad bibendum", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius,
Vatablus. , 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, Esther 5:8.
Esther 7:2.
2 And on the second day, at
the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your
petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your
request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
YLT 2and the king saith to
Esther also on the second day, during the banquet of wine, `What [is] thy
petition, Esther, O queen? and it is given to thee; and what thy request? unto
the half of the kingdom -- and it is done.'
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 Esther 5:3.
Esther 7:3.
3 Then Queen Esther answered
and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the
king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.
YLT 3And Esther the queen
answereth and saith, `If I have found grace in thine eyes, O king, and if to
the king [it be] good, let my life be given to me at my petition, and my people
at my request;
Then Esther the
queen answered and said,....
Not rolling herself at the
king's knees, as SeverusF6Hist. Sacr. l. 2. 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.
Esther 7:4.
4 For we have been sold, my
people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been
sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy
could never compensate for the king’s loss.”
YLT 4for we have been sold, I
and my people, to cut off, to slay, and to destroy; and if for men-servants and
for maid-servants we had been sold I had kept silent -- but the adversity is
not equal to the loss of the king.'
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, Esther 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 freeF7Alex.
ab. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 20. ; 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 Psalm 4:1 and read
the words, "for this distress would not be reckoned the king's damage"F8הצר "adversitas", Drusius, De Dieu;
"angustia", Cocc. Lexic. in rad. שוה. , 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.
Esther 7:5.
5 So King Ahasuerus answered
and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume
in his heart to do such a thing?”
YLT 5And the king Ahasuerus
saith, yea, he saith to Esther the queen, `Who [is] he -- this one? and where
[is] this one? -- he whose heart hath filled him to do so?'
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"F9אשר מלאו לבו "qui replevit cor
suum", Drusius; "implevit", De Dieu. ; the devil no doubt filled
his heart to do it, see Acts 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.
Esther 7:6.
6 And Esther said, “The
adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!” So Haman was terrified before
the king and queen.
YLT 6And Esther saith, `The man
-- adversary and enemy -- [is] this wicked Haman;' and Haman hath been afraid
at the presence of the king and of the queen.
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.
Esther 7:7.
7 Then the king arose in his
wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but
Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil
was determined against him by the king.
YLT 7And the king hath risen, in
his fury, from the banquet of wine, unto the garden of the house, and Haman
hath remained to seek for his life from Esther the queen, for he hath seen that
evil hath been determined against him by the king.
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.
Esther 7:8.
8 When the king returned
from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen
across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also
assault the queen while I am in the house?” As the word left the king’s
mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
YLT 8And the king hath turned
back out of the garden of the house unto the house of the banquet of wine, and
Haman is falling on the couch on which Esther [is], and the king saith, `Also
to subdue the queen with me in the house?' the word hath gone out from the
mouth of the king, and the face of Haman they have covered.
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 Esther 1:5.
and Haman was
fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was;
not the bed she lay on to
sleep in the night, (for it cannot be thought that it was a bedchamber in which
the banquet was,) but on the bed or couch on which she sat or reclined at the
banquet, as was the custom in the eastern countries; now, "by", or
"near" this, as the word may be rendered, Haman fell down, even at
the feet of the queen, begging for mercy; and some think he might embrace her
feet or knees, as was the custom of the Greeks and Romans as they were
supplicatingF11"Genibusque suas", &c. Claudian. de
Raptu Proserpin l. 1. ver. 50. & Barthius in ib. Vid. Homer. Iliad. 21. l.
75. Plin. l. 1. Ep. 18. ; and so it seems to have been with the Jews, see 2 Kings 4:27, and
being in this posture, it might appear the more indecent, and give the king an
opportunity to say as follows:
then said the
king, will he force the queen also before me in the house?,
that is, ravish her; not
that he really thought so; it was not a time nor place for such an action; nor
can it be thought that Haman, in such terror and confusion he was in, could be
so disposed; and besides there were others present, as the next clause shows:
but this he said, putting the worst construction on his actions, and plainly
declaring his opinion of him, that he thought him a man capable of committing
the vilest of crimes, and that his supplications were not to be regarded:
as the word
went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face;
the servants present, as a
man unworthy to see the light; and they took what the king said to amount to a
sentence of condemnation, and that it was his will he should die; and they
covered his face, as condemned malefactors used to be; which was a custom among
the Greeks and Romans, of which many instances may be givenF12"Caput
obnubito", &c. Ciceron. Orat. 18. "pro Rabirio", Liv. Hist.
l. 1. p. 15. Curt. Hist. l. 6. c. 11. Vid. Solerium de Pileo, sect. 2. p. 20.
& Lipsii not. in lib. 1. c. 1. de Cruce, p. 203, 204. ; though Aben Ezra
says it was the custom of the kings of Persia, that their servants covered the
face of him the king was angry with, that he might not see his face any more,
which was well known in the Persian writings.
Esther 7:9.
9 Now Harbonah, one of the
eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman
made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the
house of Haman.” Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”
YLT 9And Harbonah, one of the
eunuchs, saith before the king, `Also lo, the tree that Haman made for
Mordecai, who spake good for the king, is standing in the house of Haman, in
height fifty cubits;' and the king saith, `Hang him upon it.'
And Harbonah,
one of the chamberlains, said before the king,....
One of the seven
chamberlains, see Esther 1:10, his
name, with JosephusF25Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6. sect. 11. , is
Sabouchadas.
Behold also,
the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had
spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman.
This man, perhaps, had
seen it there, when he went with others to fetch Haman to the banquet, Esther 6:14. The
sin of Haman is aggravated by preparing a gallows for a man before he was
accused to the king, or condemned, or had a grant for his execution, and for a
man that had well deserved of the king for discovering a conspiracy against
him, and whom now the king had delighted to honour:
then the king
said, hang him thereon;
immediately, being ready
prepared, the king's word was enough, being a sovereign and tyrannical prince.
Esther 7:10.
10 So they hanged Haman on
the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.
YLT 10And they hang Haman upon
the tree that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the fury of the king hath lain
down.
So they hanged
Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai,....
Not within his house, Esther 7:9, but
more probably in his courtyard, in the sight of his family and friends; or, it
may be, the gallows was taken from thence, and set up without the city, where
he was hanged: for so it is said in the additions of the book of
Esther,"For he that was the worker of these things, is hanged at the gates
of Susa with all his family: God, who ruleth all things, speedily rendering
vengeance to him according to his deserts.' (Esther 16:18)that he was
hanged without the gates of Shushan; see Psalm 7:15,
then was the
king's wrath pacified;
having inflicted
punishment on such a wicked counsellor of his, and the contriver of such
mischief.
──《John Gill’s
Exposition of the Bible》