CHAPTER VII _The king at the banquet urges Esther to prefer her petition,_ _with the positive assurance that it shall be granted_, 1, 2. _She petitions for her own life, and the life of her people,_ _who were sold to be destroyed_, 3, 4. _The king inquires the author of this project, and Haman... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Esther 7:2. _AT THE BANQUET OF WINE_] _Postquam vino incaluerat_, after he had been heated with wine, says the _Vulgate_. In such a state the king was more likely to come into the measures of the queen.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Esther 7:3. _LET MY LIFE BE GIVEN ME_] This was very artfully, as well as very honestly, managed; and was highly calculated to work on the feelings of the king. What! is the life of the queen, whom I most tenderly love, in any kind of danger?... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Esther 7:4. _TO BE DESTROYED, TO BE SLAIN_] She here repeats the words which Haman put into the _decree_. See Esther 3:13. _COULD NOT COUNTERVAIL THE KING'S DAMAGE._] Even the _ten thousand_ talents of silver could not be considered as a compensation to the state for the loss of a whole natio... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Esther 7:5. _WHO IS HE, AND WHERE IS HE_] There is a wonderful abruptness and confusion in the original words, highly expressive of the state of mind in which the king then was: מי הוא זה ואי זה הוא אשר מלאו לבו לעשות כן mi hu zeh veey zeh hu asher melao libbo laasoth ken. "Who? He? This one... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Esther 7:7. _HAMAN STOOD UP_] He rose from the table to make request for his life, as soon as the king had gone out; and then he fell on his knees before the queen, she still sitting upon her couch.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Esther 7:8. _WILL HE FORCE THE QUEEN_] On the king's return he found him at the queen's knees; and, professing to think that he intended to do violence to her honour, used the above expressions; though he must have known that, in such circumstances, the thought of perpetrating an act of this k... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Esther 7:9. _BEHOLD ALSO, THE GALLOWS_] As if he had said, Besides all he has determined to do to the Jews, he has erected a very high gallows, on which he had determined, this very day, to hang Mordecai, who has saved the king's life. _HANG HIM THEREON._] Let him be instantly impaled on the... [ Continue Reading ]