John Gill Commentary Esther 7

So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen .
] Or, "to drink with her" ^F5 , that is, wine; for in the next verse it is called a banquet of wine; so they did according to the invitation the queen had given them, (Esther 5:8) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: (twtvl) "ut biberent", V. L. Tigurine version; "ad bibendum", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius, Vatablus.

And the king said again to Esther on the second day, at the
banquet of wine
This was the third time he put the following question to her, being very desirous of knowing what she had to ask of him; and it was of God that this was kept upon his mind, and he was moved to solicit her petition, or otherwise it would not have been so easy for her to have introduced it.

what is your petition, Queen Esther? and it shall be granted you: and
what is your request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of
my kingdom ;
see (Esther 5:3Esther 5:6) .

Then Esther the queen answered and said
Not rolling herself at the king's knees, as Severus ^F6 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 your 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 hers, 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.

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: Hist. Sacr. l. 2.

For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain,
and to perish
She makes use of these several words, to express the utter destruction of her and her people, without any exception; not only the more to impress the king's mind with it, but she has respect to the precise words of the decree, (Esther 3:13) as she has also to the 10,000 talents of silver Haman offered to pay the king for the grant of it, when she says, "we are sold", or delivered to be destroyed:

but if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my
tongue :
should never have asked for deliverance from bondage, but have patiently submitted to it, however unreasonable, unjust, and afflictive it would have been; because it might have been borne, and there might be hope of deliverance from it at one time or another; though it is said, slaves with the Persians were never made free ^F7 ; but that being the case would not have been so great a loss to the king, who would have reaped some advantage by their servitude; whereas, by the death of them, he must sustain a loss which the enemy was not equal to, and which he could not compensate with all his riches; which, according to Ben Melech, is the sense of the next clause:

although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage ;
or, "for the enemy cannot" the 10,000 talents offered by him, and all the riches that he has, are not an equivalent to the loss the king would sustain by the death of such a multitude of people, from whom he received so large a tribute; but this the enemy regarded not; and so Jarchi interprets it, the enemy took no care of, or was concerned about the king's damage; but there is another sense, which Aben Ezra mentions, and is followed by some learned men, who take the word for "enemy" to signify "distress", trouble, and anguish, as in (Psalms 4:1) (119:143) and read the words, "for this distress would not be reckoned the king's damage" ^F8 , or loss; though it would have been a distress to the Jews to have been sold for slaves, yet the loss to the king would not be so great as their death, since he would receive benefit by their service.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Alex. ab. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 3. c. 20.
• F8: (ruh) "adversitas", Drusius, De Dieu; "angustia", Cocc. Lexic. in rad. (hwv) .

Then the King Ahasuerus answered and said to Esther the
queen
The words in the original text lie thus, "and the King Ahasuerus said, and he said to Esther the queen"; which doubling of the word does not mean, as Jarchi suggests, that before he spoke to her by a messenger, or middle person, but, now he knew she was of a royal family, he spoke to her himself; but it expresses the ruffle of his mind, and the wrath and fury he was in, that he said it again and again, with a stern countenance and great vehemence of speech:

who is he? and where is he ?
who is the man? and where does he live?

that dared to presume in his heart to do so ;
that has boldness, impudence, and courage enough to perpetrate so vile an action: or "that has filled his heart" ^F9 ; the devil no doubt filled his heart to do it, see (Acts 5:3) , but the king had either forgotten the decree he had granted, and the countenance he had given him to execute it; or, if he remembered it, he was now enraged that he should be drawn in to such an action by him; and perhaps till now was ignorant of Esther's descent, and knew not that she would be involved in the decree.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (wbl walm rva) "qui replevit cor suum", Drusius; "implevit", De Dieu.