Esther’s Plea

Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen. And the king said to Esther on the second day also [a]as they drank their wine at the banquet, “(A)What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your wish? (B)Up to half of the kingdom it shall be done.” Then Queen Esther replied, “(C)If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my request, and my people as my wish; for (D)we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, (E)killed, and eliminated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have kept silent, because the distress would not be sufficient reason to burden the king.” Then King Ahasuerus [b]asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, [c]who would presume to do such a thing?” And Esther said, “(F)A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.

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Footnotes

  1. Esther 7:2 Lit at the banquet of wine
  2. Esther 7:5 Lit said and said to
  3. Esther 7:5 Lit whose heart has filled him

Esther’s Banquet

So the king and Haman went to dine[a] with Queen Esther. And the king again said to Esther, on the second day while they were drinking,[b] “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What is your request? It will be given to you—even half the kingdom.” Then Queen Esther answered, and she said, “If I have found favor in your eyes,[c] O king, and if it is good to the king, let my life be given to me at my petition and my people at my request; I and my people have been sold to be destroyed and killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold as male and female slaves I would have kept quiet, because this[d] is not a need sufficient to trouble the king.”[e] And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who gave himself the right to do this?”[f] And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman!” And Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

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Footnotes

  1. Esther 7:1 Literally “to drink”
  2. Esther 7:2 Literally “at the meal of wine”
  3. Esther 7:3 Or “If I have won your favor”
  4. Esther 7:4 Hebrew “there”
  5. Esther 7:4 See HALOT 1437, s.v. NRSV translates, “but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king”
  6. Esther 7:5 Literally “has filled his heart to do so”