Esther 7

New American Standard Bible 2020

Esther’s Plea

1Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen.

2And the king said to Esther on the second day also 1as they drank their wine at the banquet, “2What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your wish? 3Up to half of the kingdom it shall be done.”

3Then Queen Esther replied, “4If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my request, and my people as my wish;

4for 5we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, 6killed, and eliminated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have kept silent, because the distress would not be sufficient reason to burden the king.”

5Then King Ahasuerus 7asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, 8who would presume to do such a thing?”

6And Esther said, “9A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.

Haman Is Hanged

7The king then got up 10in his anger from 11drinking wine and went into 12the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.

8Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the 13place where they had been drinking wine, Haman was falling on 14the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

9Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who stood before the king, said, “Indeed, behold, 15the wooden gallows standing at Haman’s house 16fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai 17who spoke good in behalf of the king!” And the king said, “Hang him on it.”

10 18So they hanged Haman on the wooden gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, 19and the king’s anger subsided.

Notes

1. Esther 7:2 Lit at the banquet of wine ↩
2. Esther 7:2 Esth 5:6; 9:12 ↩
3. Esther 7:2 Esth 5:3 ↩
4. Esther 7:3 Esth 5:8; 8:5 ↩
5. Esther 7:4 Esth 3:9 ↩
6. Esther 7:4 Esth 3:13 ↩
7. Esther 7:5 Lit said and said to ↩
8. Esther 7:5 Lit whose heart has filled him ↩
9. Esther 7:6 Esth 3:10 ↩
10. Esther 7:7 Esth 1:12 ↩
11. Esther 7:7 Lit the banquet of wine ↩
12. Esther 7:7 Esth 1:5 ↩
13. Esther 7:8 Lit house of the banquet of wine ↩
14. Esther 7:8 Esth 1:6 ↩
15. Esther 7:9 Esth 5:14 ↩
16. Esther 7:9 About 75 ft. or 23 m ↩
17. Esther 7:9 Esth 2:22 ↩
18. Esther 7:10 Ps 7:16; 94:23 ↩
19. Esther 7:10 Esth 7:7, 8 ↩

Esther’s Plea

Haman Is Hanged

Notes

Commentaries on Esther 7