Esth 5:1-14 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, Esther said: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me” (Esth 4:16), and then, “Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish” (Esth 4:16).
She had also spoken of the palace law: “whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live” (Esth 4:11).
This lesson is the third day after the fast began.
1Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal clothing and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, next to the king’s house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house.
2When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near and touched the top of the scepter.
3Then the king asked her, “What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom.”
4Esther said, “If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”
5Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be done as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
6The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.”
7Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and my request is this.
8If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.”
9Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he didn’t stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.
10Nevertheless Haman restrained himself, and went home. There, he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh his wife.
11Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
12Haman also said, “Yes, Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow I am also invited by her together with the king.
13Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
14Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet.” This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.
The third day. “Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal clothing and stood in the inner court of the king’s house” (v. 1). It was the third day after she said, “if I perish, I perish” (Esth 4:16).
The golden scepter. “When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near and touched the top of the scepter” (v. 2). She had said that only those to whom the king held out the golden scepter would live (Esth 4:11). The king asked her, “What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom” (v. 3).
The banquet that I have prepared. Esther did not make her request at once. She said, “If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him” (v. 4). At the banquet the king asked again (v. 6). She answered, “My petition and my request is this” (v. 7), but still asked the king and Haman to come again the next day: “I will do tomorrow as the king has said” (v. 8). Why she did this, the passage does not say.
Filled with wrath. “Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart” (v. 9). But he saw that Mordecai “didn’t stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai” (v. 9).
All this avails me nothing. “Haman restrained himself, and went home” (v. 10). He told his wife and friends of his riches, his children and the king’s favor (v. 11), and that the queen had invited no one but him to come with the king (v. 12). Then he said, “Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate” (v. 13).
Fifty cubits high. His wife and friends said, “Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it” (v. 14). “This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made” (v. 14). The chapter stops here: Esther is waiting for tomorrow’s banquet, and Haman’s gallows is already standing.
Israel’s proverbs have this line: “By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone” (Prov 25:15).
Readers can see this: how to speak before a king is something Israel’s wisdom books also talk about. Before the king, once and then twice, Esther did not hurry to say everything (vv. 4, 8).
Perhaps you, too, face a moment that takes courage: you need to go and see someone, to say something very hard to say, and you do not know how they will respond.
This lesson does not teach you a technique for persuading people. What it shows you is this: after three days of fasting, Esther put on her royal clothing and stood in the inner court; and after the king held out the golden scepter, she did not hurry to say everything at once. Ecclesiastes says there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Eccl 3:7).
This week: Think of something you have long wanted to say but have not yet said. This week, first write it down; and when the time comes to say it, go and say it.
Scripture: World English Bible.