Esther Chapter Seven
Esther Reveals Haman’s Plot
1 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”
The events of the evening are again fast-forwarded to the end of the meal. And again the king asks Esther what her request was and once again the king promises to give her anything she wanted up to half of the kingdom.
3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me for my wish, and my people for my request.
Esther finally lets the king hear her two-fold request; let me live and let my people live. This may have been the first time Esther was identified as a Jew and depending on the king’s actions could have been a fatal mistake.
4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”
Referring to the money that has been promised to those that will participate in the annihilation of the Jews, Esther points out that they have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated (same words used in the edict, see Esther 3:13). Esther notes that if they were to be simply sold into slavery, she would not have bothered the king. This is likely the first time the king and Haman heard that Esther was a Jew. Esther was careful to not indict the king, as she emphasized her people were being sold to be murdered.
5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared to do this?”
This verse is often debated as it appears that the king is truly surprised by Esther’s request. Did the king forget about the edict? Was he shocked to believe that someone wanted to kill his queen? Did he not see the connection of his queen’s life to the edict given to kill all Jews? These are just a few of the questions readers ask. Some believe the king may not have been informed of all the details of the edict as those details would have been handled by Haman and possibly really did not know about Haman’s planned genocide. The king, full of rage, excitedly asks who would dare to do such a thing?
6 And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
Esther quickly proclaims that it was Haman, calling him a foe, an enemy and truly wicked. Haman was terrified for his life as this was news to him too!
Haman Is Hanged
7 And the king arose in his wrath from the wine-drinking and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm was determined against him by the king.
Hearing that his closest and most trusted advisor was the source of his anger, the outraged king left the room. Haman takes the opportunity to plead with Esther for his life knowing that the king will undoubtedly have him killed.
8 And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face.
The king returns and sees Haman in what appeared to him as assaulting the queen. The king’s accusation of Haman must have sounded like a death warrant as his attendants immediately respond with the suggestion to have him hanged in the next verse. The ending of this verse has been interpreted to either mean that one of the king’s eunuchs covered Haman’s face like a doomed man before his execution, or that the Hebrew word ‘hāpāh’,[1] meaning to cover or the act of covering something or someone, refers to Haman covering his face after being accused. The Septuagint renders the ending of verse eight as, “When Haman heard this, he covered his face.”[2]
9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.”
Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs, informs the king that Haman had a special gallows constructed for the the purpose of hanging Mordecai. Hearing that Haman desired to kill Mordecai, someone who saved his life and was honored that very day, likely added to the king’s rage. The eunuch continued to describe the gallows as being fifty cubits high. Possibly interrupting Harbona, the king immediately orders Haman to be executed on his own gallows.
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.
Haman was executed on the gallows he had built to kill Mordecai. Once Haman was dead, the king was able to calm his anger. But the issue Esther brought to the king’s attention was still not resolved as the edict could not simply be repealed (even the king could not repeal an edict after it was made law).[3] The threat was still real, not only for Esther, but also for all Jews in the kingdom.
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[1] Strong’s Hebrew 2645.
[2] Pietersma, A., & Wright, B. G., eds. (2007). Esther. In K. H. Jobes (Trans.), A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Primary Texts) (Es 7:8). Oxford University Press.
[3] See commentary under Esther 1:19-20.
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