Esther 7:3

Est 7:3 Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:

Ver. 3. Then Esther the queen, &c.] See Est 5:7-8. As Abigail her family, and the woman of Abel the city, so doth Esther by her wisdom and humility deliver herself and her people, ducem sequens lucem fidei, a leader leading the light of faith, as one saith of her.

Let my life be given me at my petition] Heb. my soul. See how discreetly she marshalleth her words; setting these two great requests in the head of her petition, which is simplex et non fucata, plain and downright. Truth is like our first parents, most beautiful when naked. Our words in prayer must be neque lecta, neque neglecta, neither curious nor careless; but as the words of petitioners, plain and full and direct to the point. Esther reckoneth herself here among the rest of her poor countrymen, free among the dead, free of that company, and begs for her life and theirs together; because hers was even bound up in theirs. Mortis habet vices quae trahitur vita genuitibus; to live after their death would be a lifeless life; and hence her importunity for both together, since they were in her heart, ad commoriendum et convivendum, if they died she could not live. Good blood will not belie itself. Esther had not showed her kindred and people till now that she must appear for them. See the like in Moses, Heb 11:25; in Nicodemus, that night-bird; Joh 7:51, he speaks boldly, and silences the whole company; Joh 19:39, he boldly beggeth the body of Jesus; neither could he any longer conceal himself. Surely, as Solomon by trial found out the true harlot mother, so doth God by hard times discover the affections of his people. Then, as Joseph could not refrain tears, so nor they the exercise of their faith and charity.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Est 7:3. Then Esther the queen answered and said, &c. — Esther, at length, surprises the king with a petition, not for wealth, or honour, or the preferment of some of her friends to some high post, which the king expected, but for the preservation of herself and her countrymen from death and destruction. O king, let my life be given me at my petition — It is my humble and only request, that thou wouldst not give me up to the malice of that man that designs to take away my life, and will certainly do it, if thou do not prevent it. And my people — That is, the lives of my people, of the Jews, of whom I am descended. Even a stranger, a criminal, shall be permitted to petition for his life. But that a friend, a wife, a queen, should have occasion to make such a request, was very affecting!

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7:3-4 my life and the lives of my people: The statement that someone wanted to kill the queen and her family must have surprised and shocked the king. • my people and I have been sold: Esther carefully referred to the huge price Haman had paid the king to approve the decree (3:8-11). She also used the exact terminology of Haman’s decree when she said that its purpose was to kill, slaughter, and annihilate (cp. 3:13). • If we had merely been sold as slaves, I could remain quiet: Esther humbly justifies her request as due to the severity of the attack on her and her people.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 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?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Then Esther the queen answered and said,.... Not rolling herself at the king's knees, as Severus (f) writes; but rather, as the former Targum, lifting up her eyes to heaven, and perhaps putting up a secret ejaculation for direction and success:

if I have found favour in thy sight, O king; as she certainly had heretofore, and even now:

and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition; not riches, nor honour, nor any place or post at court, or in any of the king's dominions for any friend of her's, was her petition; but for her own life, that that might not be taken away, which was included in the grant the king had made to Haman, though ignorantly, to slay all the Jews, she being one of them:

and my people at my request; that is, the lives of her people also, that was her request; her own life and her people's were all she had to ask.

(f) Hist. Sacr. l. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

People. She was more concerned for these than for half of the kingdom. Hence all fasted and prayed, and Esther obtained their deliverance. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

It is my humble and only request, that thou wouldst not give me up to the malice of that man that designs to take away my life, and will certainly do it, if thou dost not prevent it.

And my people; and the lives (which is easily supplied out of the foregoing branch) of my people the Jews, of whom I am descended.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. My life… my people — Esther has had time to carefully prepare her words, and her earnest language rises to the emotionality of poetic parallelisms. We may throw her address into the following form: —

If I have found favour in thine eyes,

O king, And if to the king it seem good,

Let my life be given me at my petition,

And my people at my request.

For we are sold —

I and my people —

To be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.

If, now, for slaves and for bondwomen we were sold I had been silent,

For the enemy is not to be compared with the injury of the king.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Let my life be given me, etc. First of all, I ask at the king"s hands my own life, which is threatened; (Est_4:13) secondly, I ask the life of my people, in whose sentence it is that I am involved. Some rhetorical skill is shown in separating the two, so as to make them correspond to the two clauses of the king"s address "What is thy petition?" and "What is thy request?

HOMILETICS.

Ver. 3.

Spare our life!

Was ever so unexpected a request presented as this? When the king in his capricious favour offered his consort whatsoever she desired, even to the half of his kingdom, she asked what might have been naturally enough implored from the royal clemency by some wretched malefactor condemned to expiate his crimes by death. Give us, me and my people, our life! How strange a boon to beg! A queen high in favour, at a royal banquet, to ask that her life should be spared, and her kindred delivered from an unjust and violent end in fact, a massacre! Thus were the eyes of the king opened to the infamy of his minister, and thus was Esther made the agent in the redemption of Israel. In this petition we have an example of the request which, as suppliant sinners, we are bound to offer before the throne of grace. It implies

I A SENSE OF DANGER. It is something to be alive to this. Esther had only lately come to know of the peril in which she and her countrymen and countrywomen stood. Awake to the impending danger, she was emboldened to urge her plea. So with us. A worse enemy than Haman has plotted against the children of men. A worse fate than massacre awaits those who fall into the snare of the foe. The word of God comes to us as a word of warning, urging us to "flee from the wrath to come." Bondage is bad, but death is worse. And "the wages of sin is death.

II A HOPE OF DELIVERANCE. Esther had her fears; she had gone in, saying, "If I perish, I perish!" Yet she was encouraged by the gracious demeanour and the generous promise of the king. Therefore she said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king." We have no need of such "ifs" in our approach and our prayer to the King of heaven. He "delighteth in mercy." "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Our hope in Divine mercy is well founded; for it is founded both upon Divine promises and upon the "unspeakable gift," which is both the means and the pledge of the gift of pardon and the gift of life.

III A DESIRE FOR THE SALVATION OF OTHERS. Esther was not so selfish as to ask that she and her kinsman, Mordecai, might be spared; her desire was that the whole nation of the Jews might be delivered. Similar was the attitude of Paul, who said, "My heart"s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved!" When we seek salvation through Christ we cannot seek it for ourselves alone; we shall pray for our households, for our nation, for our race.

Thy light, that on our souls hath shone Leads us in hope to thee: Let us not feel its rays alone Alone thy people be.

O bring our dearest friends to God; Remember those we love; Fit them on earth for thine abode, Fit them for joys above.

HOMILIES BY P.C. BARKER

Vers. 3, 4.

The effectual prayer of a true priestess.

From the darker side of human nature and its painful suggestions we are glad to come out to the light and air of its more hopeful aspects. We are able to do this now without presumption or incaution. A brittle thread of hope for the very despondent is still a welcome sight to the eyes of those who look on. The plaintive prayer of the oppressed is touching not least to those who may happen to overhear. And the signs of a deep sorrow sinking almost to abject submission, rather than bearing the marks of a healthy resignation, will not fail to wake betimes our tenderest sympathy. These are the more inviting conditions under which the scene now presents itself to us. King Ahasuerus is present, on the grandeur of his throne, and with the dread authority of his golden sceptre. But it is not he who is the central figure. Esther is the central figure. Haman also is there, the would-be destroyer of a scattered nation of people, whose head is already bowed in the clay of punishment. But the eye shuns him, and flees past him to the vista which shows that same people reviving their hope and lifting again the head. And in the background of this scene there is one specially hopeful sign. It is not much that can be said at any time to the honour of Ahasuerus, yet we feel somewhat propitiated towards him when we remember that the arbitrary, imperious monarch has waited, and has even asked three times, for the prayer which Esther is now at last about to offer before him. Upon her he is bending a gracious eye, and to her he is lending an attentive ear. Esther has become awhile the priestess of her people. Let us consider her appearance in this character. We have from her lips

I A PRAYER, THE SUBJECT OF WHICH WAS LIFE. The prayer asked for life. It asked the least, for anything less would be of no worth without this being secured first. It asked the least, but what signified everything beside. Esther"s prayer told its tale, and told it all, but told it most simply. No general phrases, no hasty sentences; each word had been weighed, not indeed to produce an artificial, but a transparent effect. The skill in it was the skill of sincerity and profound earnestness alone. There was art in it, but the art of artlessness, not of artfulness. This prayer for just life and breath for herself and the congregation of her people breathes a tone of wonderful humility, and has an extraordinary promise of content in it. The voice of it surely must have faltered through falling tears, or been choked in sobs, when, in the name of all that venerable nation, so long lifted above all nations of the earth, Esther adds that if it had been only a question of bondage, and of selling into such bondage of every man and woman of them, it was not her voice that should have been heard to deprecate, nor her lips that should have been parted in prayer to prevent it. But, she says, the case was one of greater, even of supreme extremity. They were sold to death. They were sold, in the words of the opportunely-quoted "decree," "to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish." Many drops of big tears had those words been to an unumbered multitude of sensitive and high-spirited people; but now were they not for the first time like drops of molten lead to the hearing of Haman? For him they were hot with terror, heavy with doom, while their effect upon Ahasuerus was electric. Who does not feel that a prayer for life must be respectfully listened to, at least?

II A PRAYER THAT RESTED ON SACRIFICE. Esther does not purport to bring an outer sacrifice. A most real and precious sacrifice she does in fact bring. She was herself the sacrifice, and she knew it full well. Though with modesty, and as mute as could be under the circumstances, she does in a veiled manner utter the fact, and claim the plea. She pleads, as she had been taught and urged by Mordecai to plead, that she had been raised up by Providence for this hour, and "to this end" had been placed where of late she was found. There are many outer forms of sacrifice, but the principle at work here, and but thinly concealed, is the leading principle invoked in them all. So Esther makes this the plea: If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king." And "if she had found favour," was it not the result of a most real intrinsic sacrifice of self?

III A PRAYER WHICH HAD FOR ITS CHIEFEST BURDEN INTERCESSION. Esther was as "merciful" a priestess as she was a skilful one. She lets not go of the argument, the plea, the sacrifice which was found in herself; and she keeps this well in the foreground. But our ear can hear well that her prayer is really intercession. It is "my people" she has ever in sight, ever "deep graven on her heart." Her people"s name is kept close linked with her own. She had no thought of permitting them to get separated from her. They and she had the prospect of being about to share and share alike the "decree," and she takes care to pray and pray alike. This was necessary with all the old high priests under the law. Only of Christ was it not true, who "needed not to offer a sacrifice first for his own sins, and then for the people"s." But this is the language of Esther: "Let my life and my people be given me: for we are sold, I and my people.

IV A PRAYER WHICH IN MANY RESPECTS IS A SUBLIME TYPE OF THE SOUL"S PRAYER TO GOD. Within the four corners of Esther"s prayer there are some amazing analogies with the prayer of man to God, of the sinner trembling between fear and hope to the Saviour, of the helpless creature stricken with the sense of unparalleled need to the Possessor and Spirit of life. Esther"s prayer is indeed horror to our ears to hear, and grates on every highest sensibility of our nature, when (though no fault to her) we think of it as addressed to a fellow-creature. But we may now put this out of sight. The postulates of prayer are here

1. In the praying disposition of the suppliant. Here are the deep feeling, thejust estimate of the critical character of the occasion, the overwhelming sense of the prize of life. There are also to be noticed the natural selection of simplest language, the choice of briefest arguments, and all these held in hand with a self-command almost inconceivable another touch of a true analogy. All these are the things which characterise heavenward prayer where intense spiritual importunity exists.

2. In the absolute ownership, the omnipotent power, the sovereign sceptre of the being addressed. These do belong to him whom man addresses in prayer when he prays heavenward. And when these two postulates of prayer meet, rare indeed are the exceptions to that result which in one blessed word we call mercy. B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My life - It is my only request, that thou wouldst not give me up to the malice of that man who designs to take away my life. Even a stranger, a criminal, shall be permitted to petition for his life. But that a friend, a wife, a queen, should have occasion to make such a petition, was very affecting.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

If I have found favor in your eyes, king

"Find favor" here is an idiom that means to be approved of or that he is pleased with her. "In your eyes" is a metaphor representing his evaluation. AT: "If you evaluate me and approve" or "If you are pleased with me" (See: Idiom and Metaphor)

let my life be given to me

The metaphor "giving life" represents rescuing a person from being killed. This statement can be expressed in active form. AT: "save my life" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)

this is my petition

The abstract noun "petition" can be expressed with the verb "ask for." AT: "this is what I ask for" (See: Abstract Nouns)

For we have been sold

The metaphor "being sold" represents being betrayed. This can be stated in active form. AT: "For someone has betrayed us" or "For someone has put us in danger of our enemies" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)

to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated

Here all three words have the same meaning and are used for emphasis. This can be stated in active form. AT: "for our enemies to destroy, kill, and annihilate us" (See: Doublet and Active or Passive)

Where is this person to be found who has filled his heart to do such a thing

To fill one's heart to do something is an idiom meaning to dare to do something. This can be stated in active form. AT: "Where is the one who has dared to so such a thing" (See: Idiom and Active or Passive)

translationWords

favor

life

people group

servant

just

Ahasuerus

Esther

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

may my life be given me that I should not be slain on the thirteenth of Adar, for you have issued an edict of massacre upon my people and my kindred.

and my people shall be given me in my request, that they should not be slain. Now if you ask, “What does it concern you?” (below 8:6): “For how can I see, etc.?”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.