The banquet
1 So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Es ther had pre pared.
2 And again, on that second day, while they were drinking wine, the king
said to Esther ¡°What ever your petition is, Queen Esther, it shall be
granted. Whatever request you make shall be fulfilled, even if it were half
of my kingdom.¡±
3 Queen Esther replied, ¡°If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it
pleases your majesty, grant me my life; and spare also the lives of my
people. This is my petition and request for my self and for my people.
4 For my people and I have been delivered to destruction, slaugh ter and
extinction. Had we been sold merely as male and female slaves, I would have
said nothing, for our calamity would not be as great a loss to the king.¡±
5 King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, ¡°Who and where is the man who dared do
such a thing?¡±
6 Esther answered, ¡°He is no other than this wicked Haman ¨C an enemy and a
foe!¡±
At this, Haman was seized with terror.
7 The king left the banquet in anger and went to the garden. Haman stayed to
beg Queen Esther for his life, realizing that the king had decided on his
doom.
8 When the king returned from the garden to the banquet hall, Ha man had
thrown himself on the bed where Esther was reclining. The king ex claimed,
¡°Is he going to molest the queen even be fore my eyes in my own house?¡± No
sooner had the king spoken than his assistants covered Haman¡¯s face.
9 Harbona, one of the king¡¯s eunuchs, said, ¡°This man built a fifty-cubit
gallows for Mordecai who gave the report that saved the king. It is standing
there at his house.¡±
The king said, ¡°Very well, hang him on it.¡±
10 So Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mor decai, and the
king¡¯s anger subsided.
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Comments Esther, Chapter 7
• 7.1 God helps those who ask, but we must always use human resources.
Esther trusts God, but she uses prudence and the necessary tactics so as not
to prevent what God is about to achieve.
History has demonstrated that those who persecute God¡¯s people never come
out victorious.
We have no trouble seeing with what irony the author of this book depicts
the great kings, with their whims and vanity.
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