Esther 7:1–10
7 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.” 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. 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.” 5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has dared1 to do this?” 6 And Esther said, “A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
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. 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. 9 Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Moreover, the gallows2 that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits3 high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” 10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.
1 Hebrew whose heart has filled him 2 Or wooden beam; also verse 10 (see note on 2:23) 3 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
Section Overview
Esther springs her trap on Haman and succeeds in exposing him. In another coincidence, the king falsely interprets Haman’s plea for mercy and has Haman executed.
Section Outline
VIII. Esther’s Second Feast and Haman’s Exposure (7:1–10)
A. Esther Reveals Haman’s Plot (7:1–6)
B. Haman Is Hanged (7:7–10)
Response
With the execution of Haman, the deliverance of God’s people in Persia has begun. Esther is at her most admirable in this chapter, and her most cunning. She exposes Haman for what he is, and Haman’s schemes entrap him. Strikingly, although Esther is the main actor of the chapter’s first half, she is passive in the second half. She guides the king to see the truth about his favorite adviser, but does not call for his death. And so it may be that, when God elevates a member of his people to play a key role in the deliverance of his people from violent persecution (4:14), their time of influence passes and other forces go to work.
We see the deceptive nature of evil in this chapter. Haman’s misinterpretation of Esther’s banquet means he will walk right into a trap, sealing his doom. We see that one part of God’s keeping his promises to his people involves judgment and destruction of evil. In fact, for God to fail to judge evil would necessitate unfaithfulness to his promises. Finally, in God’s deliverance of his people in Persia—even though they seem to have forgotten him—we see a prefiguring of a much greater act of deliverance on God’s part from a much greater spiritual enemy.
Hebrew whose heart has filled him
Or wooden beam; also verse 10 (see note on 2:23)
A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters
7:1–2 This is the third time the king has asked Esther what she wants, and Esther has already promised she will reveal her request (5:8). Esther has laid her trap the best she can; now is the time to spring it.
7:3 Esther’s indirect expression of her request is made in the most humble terms. She first asks only for her own life and that of her people. Since Ahasuerus uses two words in verse 2 for her desire, Esther’s dividing of her “wish” for herself and her “request” for her people shows she has bound her life with that of the Jews. To kill the Jews, Esther says, is to kill her. Esther has forsaken any safety she might have enjoyed as queen and commits herself to suffer with her people.
7:4 For Ahasuerus’s queen to have to beg for her life would have been, of course, a shock to the king. Some explanation must be given, which Esther provides in the most deferential way possible: if the Jews had only been sold as slaves, Esther would not have bothered to say anything, since the suffering of the Jews in slavery would have been nothing compared to the damage the king would have incurred in canceling the sale. Only because they had been sold to be exterminated, Esther says, does she dare bother the king about it. Esther phrases the problem in reference to the king and his convenience.
All this is, of course, hyperbolic. But Persian court customs probably regularly employed such exaggerations, and Esther is dealing with an incredibly sensitive ego. She implies she would not have brought this up without the most pressing justification, appealing to Ahasuerus’s self-interest. Esther still, however, has not directly named Haman as her enemy. Having aroused the king’s curiosity, she is now arousing anger and a sense of injury. She will soon direct that anger toward the intended target.
7:5 When Ahasuerus asks who would threaten the life of his queen, he either does not remember giving Haman permission to enact his plan against that “certain people” (3:8) or still does not know Esther is Jewish (she does not explicitly mention the Jews by name in 7:3–4) and so does not realize the edict threatens his queen. The king does not ask for details about the plot against his wife; he seems more concerned about offense to royal honor than possible loss of life.
7:6 It is time for Esther to spring her trap. “This wicked Haman,” sitting right before us, she says, is the “foe and enemy.” Her speech is two brief phrases of three words each, quickened by her anger.
It is important for Ahasuerus to see Haman for what he is. Although Haman has managed to pass himself off as a friend of the king and the Persian state, Esther is trying to expose Haman as the enemy he is, a man who all along has been plotting against the king’s interests. Haman’s only response is mute terror before the king and queen.
7:7–8 The decisive moment in the story has been reached—Haman’s plot is now exposed before the king, the one person with authority to counteract it. What will the king do? The anticlimax of Ahasuerus’s storming about in a rage is probably not what the first-time reader would expect, but it is not out of character for him. At no point in the book will he take decisive action. Haman can see, as the king leaves, that he is not in the king’s favor; but the king has, as yet, done nothing.
This chapter began with Esther begging for her life; now Haman begs for his to the only one in authority above him. The man who was enraged because Mordecai would neither bow (3:2) nor rise (5:9) now stands and falls before Esther to beg. The word “falling” is the same as in 6:13; what Haman’s wife and friends predicted is now literally happening.
In another providential coincidence, the king returns just as this is happening and manages to draw exactly the wrong conclusion. The sight of a penitent Haman might have counted in Haman’s favor, but Ahasuerus interprets Haman’s falling before Esther in terms of his own honor and possessions (in this case, his wife). It is, of course, extremely unlikely the already terrified Haman would do what the king thinks he is doing. But Ahasuerus is obsessed with his own honor, especially in relation to women. It was also the practice in ancient Persia for no one to come within seven steps of a harem woman, even in the presence of others. Haman’s violation of social protocol probably made it easier for Ahasuerus to draw the wrong conclusion. Ironically, Haman will be executed not for the real crime—plotting the death of the Persian Jews—but for the false charge of attempted rape. The latter seems to bother Ahasuerus more than the former.
Although there appear to be other servants reasonably close by, Esther is probably the only one who can clear Haman of this charge—but she says nothing. Some commentators have faulted Esther for failing to speak up. However, if Haman were to recover from this situation and avoid execution, the man devoted to and rejoicing in Jewish destruction might get his way in the end. Haman is falling in this scene, but his defeat is not yet complete. It is important to remember that Ahasuerus is malleable and fickle and has shown no sign of regret or distress over the destruction of Esther’s people.
Esther remains silent and Haman’s face is covered. He earlier had covered his own face as he fled the palace (6:12); now, the king speaks and other servants perform this ritual. His fate is sealed.
7:9–10 Once again, another voice helps Ahasuerus decide what to do. Apparently the gallows are public knowledge—as well as Haman’s purpose in building them. Haman’s intending these gallows for the man who saved the king’s life makes the decision easy for Ahasuerus. Twice in verses 9–10 it is specified that Haman built these gallows for Mordecai, emphasizing the poetic justice of Haman’s fate. This is meant to give a sense of satisfaction to the reader as Haman’s evil entraps him. Modern sensibilities may find this difficult, of course. But while it would be perverse to relish the suffering and death of anyone, no matter how well deserved (indeed, to do so would be to show an attitude similar to Haman himself!), a sense of somber satisfaction at the justice of God is not morally ugly. The Bible repeatedly testifies that God governs his creation in such a way that evil tends to destroy those who practice it: “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it” (Prov. 26:27; cf. Pss. 7:12–16; 9:15; 57:6; Prov. 28:10). Modern discomfort with this truth amounts to discomfort with God’s judging evil and establishing justice and righteousness in the earth. If Haman wished to avoid the gallows, he should never have built them. It is worth considering, in addition, that this is a man devoted to the destruction of God’s people because he is unable to be at peace otherwise (Est. 5:13–14). Is there any possible scenario imaginable in which God’s people are delivered and Haman keeps his life?