What events and attributed statements does Esther Chapter 5 record?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

On the third day Esther is received, approaches and kisses the sceptre, then invites the king and Aman to a banquet. She asks them to return tomorrow before she opens her mind; her private reason for the delay is unstated. Aman is angered by Mardochai and approves his wife’s and friends’ advice to prepare a fifty-cubit gibbet.

Chapter breakdown

On the third day, Queen Esther dressed in royal apparel and entered the inner court of the king's palace, standing directly opposite the royal hall where King Assuerus sat on his throne. Seeing Esther standing before him, the king looked upon her with favor and extended the golden sceptre held in his hand. Esther approached the throne and kissed the top of the sceptre, whereupon the king asked what she desired, promising to grant her petition even if it were half of his kingdom.

Rather than disclosing her perilous request immediately, Esther invited the king and his chief minister Aman to a banquet she had prepared that day. Assuerus promptly ordered Aman summoned, and both went to the queen's banquet. After drinking wine plentifully, the king repeated his generous offer, urging Esther to make her request known. She replied by asking that the king and Aman return to a second banquet on the following day, promising that she would then open her mind and present her petition to the king.

Aman left the palace banquet joyful and merry, but his mood turned to intense fury when he saw Mardochai sitting at the palace gate. Mardochai neither rose up to honor him nor made the slightest movement from his seat. Hiding his anger for the moment, Aman returned to his house and gathered his friends and his wife Zares.

Aman boasted to them of his immense wealth, his numerous children, and the great honors by which the king had promoted him above all other princes and officials. He added with pride that Queen Esther had invited no one except him to accompany the king to her feast, with an invitation to dine again tomorrow. Yet he declared that all these honors felt like nothing as long as he saw Mardochai the Jew sitting at the palace gate. Zares and his friends advised him to erect a fifty-cubit-high wooden gibbet and ask the king the next morning to have Mardochai hanged upon it, so that he could attend the queen's banquet in complete joy. The advice pleased Aman, and he ordered the tall gallows prepared.

The story inside

Initial conditions: On the third day Esther is received, approaches and kisses the sceptre, then invites the king and Aman to a banquet. Development: She asks them to return tomorrow before she opens her mind; her private reason for the delay is unstated. Recorded ending: Aman is angered by Mardochai and approves his wife’s and friends’ advice to prepare a fifty-cubit gibbet.

Lessons worth keeping

1
On the third day Esther is received, approaches and kisses the sceptre, then invites the king and Aman to a banquet.
2
She asks them to return tomorrow before she opens her mind; her private reason for the delay is unstated.
3
Aman is angered by Mardochai and approves his wife’s and friends’ advice to prepare a fifty-cubit gibbet.

Test your recall

Which concrete sequence does this chapter record, and what remains unstated?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 53398–53400
And when he saw Esther the queen standing, she pleased his eyes, and he held out toward her the golden sceptre, which he held in his hand and she drew near, and kissed the top of his sceptre.
Lines 53406–53407
If it please the king, I beseech thee to come to me this day, and Aman with thee to the banquet which I have prepared.
Lines 53441–53442
And whereas I have all these things, I think I have nothing, so long as I see Mardochai the Jew sitting before the king’s gate.
Lines 53445–53448
Order a great beam to be prepared, fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king, that Mardochai may be hanged upon it, and so thou shalt go full of joy with the king to the banquet. The counsel pleased him, and he commanded a high gibbet to be prepared.