Bible Commentaries
Esther 7

Verses 1-3

So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.

No JFB commentary on these verses.

Verse 4

For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage.

We are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed - i:e., by the cruel and perfidious scheme of that man who offered an immense sum of money to purchase our extermination. Esther dwelt on this contemplated atrocity in a variety of expressions, which both evinced the depth of her own emotions, and were intended to awaken similar feelings in the king's breast.

But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue. Though a great calamity to the Jews, the enslavement of that people might have enriched the national exchequer, and, at all events, the policy, if found from experience to be bad, could be altered. But the destruction of such a body of people would be an irreparable evil, and all the talents Haman might pour into the treasury could not compensate for the loss of their services.

Verses 5-6

Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?

No JFB commentary on these verses.

Verse 7

And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

He saw that there was evil determined against him by the king. When the king of Persia orders an offender to be executed, and then rises and goes into the women's apartment, it is a sign that no mercy is to be hoped for. Even the sudden rising of the king in anger was the same as if he had pronounced sentence.

Verse 8

Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he force the queen also before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.

Haman was fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. We do not know the precise form of the couches on which the Persians reclined at table. But it is probable that they were not very different from those used by the Greeks and Romans. Haman, perhaps, at first stood up to beg pardon of Esther; but driven in his extremity to resort to an attitude of the most earnest supplication, he fell prostrate on the couch where the queen was recumbent. The king returning that instant, was fired at what seemed like an outrage on female modesty. They covered Haman's face. The import of this striking action is, that a criminal is unworthy any longer to look on the face of the king, and hence, when malefactors are consigned to their doom an Persia the first thing is to cover the face with a veil or napkin.

Verse 9

And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.

Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows, [ hineeh (H2009) haa`eets (H6086)] - behold the tree. This eunuch had probably been the messenger sent with the invitation to Haman, and on that occasion had seen the gallows. The information he now volunteered, as well, it may be from abhorrence of Haman's cold-blooded conspiracy as from sympathy with his amiable mistress, involved with her people in imminent peril.

Verse 10

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared. He has not been the only plotter of mischief whose feet have been taken in the net which they hid (Psalms 9:15). But never was condemnation more just, and retribution more merited, than the execution of that gigantic criminal.