Catholic Commentary on Esther 7

"A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!" (Esther 7:6)

Esther Pleads for Her People

At the second banquet the king again asks Esther her request. She answers: if I have found favour in your sight, O king, let my life be given me and my people. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated. If we had only been sold as slaves I would have kept quiet, but the enemy cannot compensate for the king's damage. The king asks: who is this and where is he who presumed to do this? Esther answers: a foe and enemy! This wicked Haman! Haman is terrified before the king and queen. The king goes into the garden in his rage. Haman stays to beg Esther for his life. When the king returns, Haman has fallen on Esther's couch; the king thinks he is assaulting her. Haman's face is covered immediately. A servant says: there is a pole fifty cubits high that Haman prepared for Mordecai. Hang him on it, the king says. The king's anger subsides.

The Catechism identifies Esther's willingness to identify herself with her people at the cost of her own life as a figure of the intercession that takes the side of the condemned (CCC 2577).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, Esther revealed her identity at the moment of greatest risk: I and my people have been sold to be destroyed. The disclosure she had hidden for years came at the moment it would cost the most and accomplish the most. The concealed identity is not hidden forever; it waits for the moment when its revelation can save the most lives.

Prayer

Lord God, give your people the courage to reveal their identity at the moment it costs the most and saves the most. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

7
Esther Pleads for Her People
1 So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen, 2 and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”
 
3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request. 4 For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”
 
5 Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise * 7:5 Hebrew whose heart has filled him to do such a scheme?”
 
6 Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man-Haman!”
 
And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.
The Hanging of Haman
 
7 In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.
 
8 Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually assault the queen while I am in the palace?”
 
As soon as the words had left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
 
9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high † 7:9 50 cubits is approximately 75 feet or 22.9 meters high. at Haman’s house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.”
 
“Hang him on it!” declared the king.
 
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

*7:5 7:5 Hebrew whose heart has filled him to do

†7:9 7:9 50 cubits is approximately 75 feet or 22.9 meters high.

Public Domain