What events and attributed statements does Esther Chapter 7 record?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

At the second-day banquet Esther petitions for her life and people and identifies Aman as the enemy. The angry king leaves; Aman begs Esther for life, and the returning king accuses him when he is fallen on her bed. Harbona reports the gibbet, the king orders Aman hanged on it, and the king’s wrath ceases.

Chapter breakdown

King Assuerus and Aman came to drink with Queen Esther on the second day. On this second day, warmed with wine, the king repeated his royal promise, asking Esther to name her petition and assuring her that whatever she desired, even up to half of his kingdom, would be granted to her.

Queen Esther answered: if she had found favor in his eyes, she pleaded for her own life and the lives of her people. She revealed that she and her entire nation had been handed over to destruction, slaughter, and total annihilation. She explained that if they had merely been sold into bondage as slaves, she would have endured the tragedy in mournful silence, but now their enemy had cruelty that redounded upon the king.

King Assuerus demanded to know: "Who is this, and of what power, that he should do these things?" Esther said: "It is this Aman that is our adversary and most wicked enemy." Upon hearing this direct accusation, Aman was astonished, completely unable to meet the countenance of the king and queen.

Overcome with burning anger, King Assuerus rose from the banquet table and walked outside into the palace garden. Realizing that the king had determined his destruction, Aman remained in the room, falling prostrate upon the couch where Esther lay to beg for his life. When the king returned from the garden and saw Aman collapsed upon the queen's couch, he exclaimed in fury: "He will force the queen also in my presence, in my own house." Before the words had fully left the king's mouth, they immediately covered Aman’s face.

Harbona, one of the attending eunuchs, then spoke up and informed the king that a fifty-cubit gibbet stood in Aman’s house, built specifically to hang Mardochai, the loyal official whose report had previously saved the king's life. Assuerus immediately commanded: "Hang him upon it." Aman was hanged upon the very gallows he had constructed for Mardochai, and the king's wrath was finally appeased.

The story inside

Initial conditions: At the second-day banquet Esther petitions for her life and people and identifies Aman as the enemy. Development: The angry king leaves; Aman begs Esther for life, and the returning king accuses him when he is fallen on her bed. Recorded ending: Harbona reports the gibbet, the king orders Aman hanged on it, and the king’s wrath ceases.

Lessons worth keeping

1
At the second-day banquet Esther petitions for her life and people and identifies Aman as the enemy.
2
The angry king leaves; Aman begs Esther for life, and the returning king accuses him when he is fallen on her bed.
3
Harbona reports the gibbet, the king orders Aman hanged on it, and the king’s wrath ceases.

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 53524–53527
And the king said to her again the second day, after he was warm with wine: What is thy petition, Esther, that it may be granted thee? and what wilt thou have done: although thou ask the half of my kingdom, thou shalt have it.
Lines 53529–53531
Then she answered: If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please thee, give me my life for which I ask, and my people for which I request.
Lines 53542–53544
And Esther said: It is this Aman that is our adversary and most wicked enemy. Aman hearing this was forthwith astonished, not being able to bear the countenance of the king and of the queen.
Lines 53557–53560
And Harbona, one of the eunuchs that stood waiting on the king, said: Behold the gibbet which he hath prepared for Mardochai, who spoke for the king, standeth in Aman’s house, being fifty cubits high. And the king said to him: Hang him upon it.