Esther points out that it is a matter of common notoriety, not only among the courtiers but throughout the Empire, that death would be the penalty for entering the king's presence unsummoned, unless he should hold out the golden sceptre. Herodotus puts the rule in a modified form, saying that those who sought the interview had to be announced (Herod. iii. 118, and cp. 140). But Esther might very well have hesitated to make application in this way, from the likelihood to her mind that she was no longer in favour with the king, and that therefore a request for an audience would certainly prove futile, whereas in the method which she actually adopted there was at least a chance of success. Josephus makes the law to have been that none of the king's own people (that is, members of the royal family) should approach him unsummoned, when he sat on his throne (Ant.xi. 6. 3).

there is one law for him i.e. the law is without exception, the pronoun referring to the law-breaker. The A.V. (-there is one law of his") wrongly makes it refer to the king.

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