Ester 6:1--7:10

The Turning Point: The King Honors Mordecai

6:1 Throughout that night the king was unable to sleep, ¹  so he asked for the book containing the historical records ²  to be brought. As the records ³  were being read in the king’s presence, 6:2 it was found written that Mordecai had disclosed that Bigthana ⁴  and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, had plotted to assassinate ⁵  King Ahasuerus.

6:3 The king asked, “What great honor ⁶  was bestowed on Mordecai because of this?” The king’s attendants who served him responded, “Not a thing was done for him.”

6:4 Then the king said, “Who is that in the courtyard?” Now Haman had come to the outer courtyard of the palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had constructed for him. 6:5 The king’s attendants said to him, “It is Haman who is standing in the courtyard.” The king said, “Let him enter.”

6:6 So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What should be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” Haman thought to himself, ⁷  “Who is it that the king would want to honor more than me?” 6:7 So Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king wishes to honor, 6:8 let them bring royal attire which the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden – one bearing the royal insignia! ⁸  6:9 Then let this clothing and this horse be given to one of the king’s noble officials. Let him ⁹  then clothe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him lead him about through the plaza of the city on the horse, calling ¹⁰  before him, ‘So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!’”

6:10 The king then said to Haman, “Go quickly! Take the clothing and the horse, just as you have described, and do as you just indicated to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Don’t neglect ¹¹  a single thing of all that you have said.”

6:11 So Haman took the clothing and the horse, and he clothed Mordecai. He led him about on the horse throughout the plaza of the city, calling before him, “So shall it be done to the man whom the king wishes to honor!”

6:12 Then Mordecai again sat at the king’s gate, while Haman hurried away to his home, mournful and with a veil over his head. 6:13 Haman then related to his wife Zeresh and to all his friends everything that had happened to him. These wise men, ¹²  along with his wife Zeresh, said to him, “If indeed this Mordecai before whom you have begun to fall is Jewish, ¹³  you will not prevail against him. No, you will surely fall before him!”

6:14 While they were still speaking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived. They quickly brought Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

The King Has Haman Executed

7:1 So the king and Haman came to dine ¹⁴  with Queen Esther. 7:2 On the second day of the banquet of wine the king asked Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your petition? Ask up to half the kingdom, and it shall be done!”

7:3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have met with your approval, ¹⁵  O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition. 7:4 For we have been sold ¹⁶  – both I and my people – to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”

7:5 Then King Ahasuerus responded ¹⁷  to Queen Esther, “Who is this individual? Where is this person to be found who is presumptuous enough ¹⁸  to act in this way?”

7:6 Esther replied, “The oppressor and enemy is this evil Haman!”

Then Haman became terrified in the presence of the king and queen. 7:7 In rage the king arose from the banquet of wine and withdrew to the palace garden. Meanwhile, Haman stood to beg Queen Esther for his life, ¹⁹  for he realized that the king had now determined a catastrophic end for him. ²⁰ 

7:8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet of wine, Haman was throwing himself down ²¹  on the couch where Esther was lying. ²²  The king exclaimed, “Will he also attempt to rape the queen while I am still in the building!”

As these words left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 7:9 Harbona, ²³  one of the king’s eunuchs, said, “Indeed, there is the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke out in the king’s behalf. It stands near Haman’s home and is seventy-five feet ²⁴  high.”

The king said, “Hang him on it!” 7:10 So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.

[6:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and the sleep of the king fled.” In place of the rather innocuous comment of the Hebrew text, the LXX reads here, “And the Lord removed the sleep from the king.” The Greek text thus understands the statement in a more overtly theological way than does the Hebrew text, although even in the Hebrew text there may be a hint of God’s providence at work in this matter. After all, this event is crucial to the later reversal of Haman’s plot to destroy the Jewish people, and a sympathetic reader is likely to look beyond the apparent coincidence.

[6:1]  ² tn Heb “the book of the remembrances of the accounts of the days”; NAB “the chronicle of notable events.”

[6:1]  ³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the records) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:2]  ⁴ tn This individual is referred to as “Bigthan,” a variant spelling of the name, in Esth 2:21.

[6:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “to send a hand against”; NASB “had sought to lay hands on.”

[6:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “honor and greatness.” The expression is a hendiadys (see the note on 5:10 for an explanation of this figure).

[6:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “said in his heart” (so ASV); NASB, NRSV “said to himself.”

[6:8]  ⁸ tc The final comment (“one on whose head the royal crown has been”) is not included in the LXX.

[6:8]  tn Heb “a royal crown on his head.” The reference is to an official decoration or headdress for horses in royal service. See HALOT 506 s.v. כֶּתֶר; DCH 4:477 s.v. כֶּתֶר. Cf. TEV “a royal ornament”; CEV “a fancy headdress.”

[6:9]  ⁹ tc The present translation reads with the LXX וְהִלְבִּישׁוֹ (vÿhilbisho, “and he will clothe him”) rather than the reading of the MT וְהִלְבִּישׁוּ (vÿhilbishu, “and they will clothe”). The reading of the LXX is also followed by NAB, NRSV, TEV, CEV, and NLT. Likewise, the later verbs in this verse (“cause him to ride” and “call”) are better taken as singulars rather than plurals.

[6:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and let them call” (see the previous note).

[6:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “do not let fall”; NASB “do not fall short.”

[6:13]  ¹² tc Part of the Greek tradition and the Syriac Peshitta understand this word as “friends,” probably reading the Hebrew term רֲכָמָיו (rakhamayv, “his friends”) rather than the reading of the MT חֲכָמָיו (hakhamayv, “his wise men”). Cf. NLT “all his friends”; the two readings appear to be conflated by TEV as “those wise friends of his.”

[6:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the seed of the Jews”; KJV, ASV similar.

[7:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to drink”; NASB “to drink wine.” The expression is a metaphor for lavish feasting, cf. NRSV “to feast”; KJV “to banquet.”

[7:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “If I have found grace in your eyes” (so also in 8:5); TEV “If it please Your Majesty.”

[7:4]  ¹⁶ sn The passive verb (“have been sold”) is noncommittal and nonaccusatory with regard to the king’s role in the decision to annihilate the Jews.

[7:5]  ¹⁷ tc The second occurrence of the Hebrew verb וַיּאמֶר (vayyo’mer, “and he said”) in the MT should probably be disregarded. The repetition is unnecessary in the context and may be the result of dittography in the MT.

[7:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “has so filled his heart”; NAB “who has dared to do this.”

[7:7]  ¹⁹ sn There is great irony here in that the man who set out to destroy all the Jews now finds himself begging for his own life from a Jew.

[7:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for he saw that calamity was determined for him from the king”; NAB “the king had decided on his doom”; NRSV “the king had determined to destroy him.”

[7:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “falling”; NAB, NRSV “had (+ just TEV) thrown himself (+ down TEV).”

[7:8]  ²² tn Heb “where Esther was” (so KJV, NASB). The term “lying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “was reclining.”

[7:9]  ²³ sn Cf. 1:10, where Harbona is one of the seven eunuchs sent by the king to summon Queen Vashti to his banquet.

[7:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “fifty cubits.” See the note on this expression in Esth 5:14.