Esther 7:1-6

VIII. Plea of Esther, Esther 7:1-10

A. Massacre Disclosed

TEXT: Esther 7:1-6

1

So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.

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? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.

3

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:

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 peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage.

5

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?

6

And Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and queen.

Today's English Version, Esther 7:1-6

And so the king and Haman went to eat with Esther for a second time. Over the wine the king asked her again, Now, Queen Esther, what do you want? Tell me and you shall have it. I-'ll even give you half the empire.
Queen Esther answered, If it please Your Majesty to grant my humble request, my wish is that I may live and that my people may live. My people and I have been sold for slaughter. If it were nothing more serious than being sold into slavery, I would have kept quiet and not bothered you about it; but we are about to be destroyedexterminated!
Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, Who dares to do such a thing? Where is this man?
Esther answered, Our enemy, our persecutor, is this evil man Haman!

COMMENTS

Esther 7:1-2 Promise: The king was anxious to hear Esther's request. She had piqued his curiosity by postponing what was her heart's desire. Now the king repeats his magnanimous promise, ... even to the half of my kingdom it shall be performed. for the third time (cf. Esther 5:3; Esther 5:8). Note that the king addressed her as queen probably tacitly inviting her to make her request great and promising the certain granting of the request.

Esther 7:3-4 Petition: In spite of the urgency of the crisis and in spite of every good reason for Esther to be livid with anger at Haman, she controls her emotions and produces the proper protocol in addressing the king. Esther's petition is verbalized in only four Hebrew words, napheshi bishe -elathi, ve-'ammi bebaqqashathi; translated into English, my life at my petition, and my people at my request. These are poignant to modern Jews. They have been preserved in Jewish traditional liturgy called the Selichoth. The Selichoth are penitential prayers in the form of liturgical poems recited on all fast days and days of special intercessions and during the penitential season which begins before Rosh Ha-Shanah (Jewish New Year) and concludes with the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Esther showed great diplomatic skill in pleading for her own life first. The revelation that the life of his favorite was in danger would rouse any protective instinct the king might possess. Who would dare threaten the life of his queen? Then, perhaps for the first time, the king learned that Esther was a Jewess. She must now acknowledge her genetic origin if she is to secure the salvation of her kinsmen.

She does not hesitate; she does not mince words. She tells the king plainly that she and her people have been sold to be slaughtered. Is there an inference in her use of the word sold that the king himself is implicated in the massacre about to be executed?perhaps! What she most certainly does is tabulate the great loss in human resources to the king should this genocide be carried out. Apparently the Jews, even though a people in exile, and technically prisoners of war, were not looked upon as prisoners but were given privileges of freedom practically equal to Persian citizenship so long as they did not seek to disobey the laws of Persia. Esther indicates that she, at least, might have accepted a change of social status to that of bondage or slavery for her people. However, she is quick to point out, Hainan's ten thousand talents of silver (Esther 3:9) would not be able to pay for the economic, intellectual, political, ethical loss to the Persian empire should the status of the Jews be changed to slave. The Jews evidently were making great contributions to the Persian society in all the areas mentioned above so long as they were given rights nearly equal to those of native Persians.

The plight of the Jews is not slavery, but imminent annihilation. Now the king realizes he is not only about to lose his queen, his favorite wife, he is also about to suffer irreparable loss of human resources to his empire if he allows this slaughter to take place.

Esther 7:5-6 Perpetrator: Xerxes immediately asks, Who is he. The Hebrew phrase is literally, ... who is filled in his heart to do so? He knows very well that Haman secured the imperial decree to exterminate the Jews. There may have been a subtle attempt to make himself appear free of any involvement in the matter. Esther could have justifiably said, Thou art the man! He was involved. He accepted the money from Haman and put his royal seal to the decree. But Esther was interested more in saving her people than placing blame. Besides, the king had been told a false story by Haman alleging Jewish insurrection.

Esther put the blame where it really should beHaman. Her accusation was that Haman was a tzar (Hebrew for adversary, persecutor, vexer) and an -ayav (Hebrew for enemy) and a ra-'a-' (Hebrew for evil-doer, wicked-one). Esther does not have one word to say in favor of Haman. There were no mitigating circumstances to soften the enormity of his evil intention. His motives were completely wicked.

Haman was afraid. Well he might be. Now he was the condemned, and the Jews his condemners. Now it was his life in the balance. Now he knows how the Jews felt when they heard the royal edict for their massacreterrified! The justice of the One whose very Nature is Absolute Justice is about to be manifested. Someday, just as surely as that day of Haman, all the injustices and persecutions and slayings of all the faithful believers of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, will be corrected and vindicated. Final, complete eternal, absolute justice will be executed by the Judge of all the earth. The enemies of God and His people will receive what they have imposed upon God's precious saints. The destruction of Haman and the salvation of the Jewish people is simply another historical demonstration of how the Creator intends to consummate all of historywith justice!