Esther 7
About EstherWritten by AI
Esther is the story of how a Jewish orphan became queen of Persia and how her people were saved from a plot to destroy them. It is set in the court of King Xerxes, around 480 BC, among the Jews who stayed in Persia rather than returning home. The author is unknown; Jewish tradition suggests Mordecai or the men of the Great Assembly.
The book is famous for one thing it never does: it never mentions the name of God. Yet the story is full of turning points that are hard to call luck: a sleepless king, a well-timed banquet, a gallows that serves the wrong man. Many readers see God's hidden hand here, working through ordinary choices.
Watch Esther grow from a quiet young woman who hides who she is into someone who risks her life for others. The key moment is Mordecai's question: “who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” The book ends by explaining the Jewish feast of Purim.
Before you read Esther 7Written by AI
At the second banquet Esther finally speaks: she and her people have been sold to be destroyed, and Haman is the enemy. The king storms out, Haman pleads with the queen, and the king returns furious. Haman is hanged on the very gallows he built for Mordecai.
Esther Pleads for Her People
So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen, and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”
Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request. For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”
Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?”
Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!”
And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.
The Hanging of Haman
In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.
Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually assault the queen while I am in the palace?”
As soon as the words had left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high at Haman’s house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.”
“Hang him on it!” declared the king.
So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.