Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Passage sections 1 ▾
Esther Saves Her People narrative 1:1–10:3
Events 1 ▾
Esther Saves Her People c. 473 BC 3
People 4 ▾
Esther Exile 1-3, 5-8 Haman Exile 1, 6-10 Ahasuerus Return & Second Temple 5 Mordecai Return & Second Temple 9-10
Speakers 1 ▾
Esther human 6
Typology 2 ▾
Esther → Christ as Intercessor 3 Esther as Royal Intercessor 3
Historic voices 6 ▾
Antiquities of the Jews 1× 1 John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible 1× 1-10 Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament 1× 1, 7 Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary 1× 1, 7 Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible 1× 2-5, 7-9 Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary 1× 7-10
Manuscript witnesses 5 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325 Codex Alexandrinus A c. AD 400-440 Aleppo Codex (Crown of Aleppo) c. AD 930 Leningrad Codex (Codex Leningradensis) AD 1008
Cross-references 47 ▾
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What is Esther 7 about?

At the second banquet the king again asks Esther her petition, and she pleads for her own life and the life of her people, who have been sold to be destroyed, slain, and to perish. When the king demands to know who would dare such a thing, she names the adversary, 'this wicked Haman,' and the king rises in wrath and goes into the palace garden. Returning to find Haman fallen upon the queen's couch to beg for his life, and reminded by Harbonah of the gallows Haman had built, the king orders him hanged on the very timber he had raised for Mordecai. The enemy of the Jews perishes by his own device, and the great reversal at the heart of the book turns the appointed day of death back upon the one who devised it.

Historical backdrop

The empire of Xerxes ran from India to Cush, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces governed from the winter palace at Susa, where the story opens with a feast lasting half a year. This was the king who threw the whole weight of Persia against Greece and lost at Salamis, and the Jews of Esther's world were the dispersion who had not gone home to Judah but stayed scattered across the provinces. Everything turns on Persian machinery: the absolute and irrevocable royal decree, the satrapies, and the mounted couriers of the royal road who carried the edicts to every province.

Matthew Henry on Esther 7
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Esther 7
The Church Fathers on Esther 7

Esther 7

Esther Chapter 7
7

1So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. 2And 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.

3Then 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: 4for 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.

5Then 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? 6And Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen. 7And 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.

8Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9Then said Harbonah, one of the chamberlains that were before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman hath made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. And the king said, Hang him thereon.

10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.

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What is Esther 7 about?

At the second banquet the king again asks Esther her petition, and she pleads for her own life and the life of her people, who have been sold to be destroyed, slain, and to perish. When the king demands to know who would dare such a thing, she names the adversary, 'this wicked Haman,' and the king rises in wrath and goes into the palace garden. Returning to find Haman fallen upon the queen's couch to beg for his life, and reminded by Harbonah of the gallows Haman had built, the king orders him hanged on the very timber he had raised for Mordecai. The enemy of the Jews perishes by his own device, and the great reversal at the heart of the book turns the appointed day of death back upon the one who devised it.