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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Esther 5:1 - 5:1
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On the third day Esther put on her royal apparel and entered the inner court of the king's house, opposite the dwelling of the king, where he was sitting on his throne before the gate (Est 5:1). The third day must be counted from the day of the transaction between the queen and Mordochai (Est 4:14); the first day being that on which it took place. The fasting, then, would not begin till midday; and on the third day Esther went to the king to invite him on that day to a banquet, which would surely take place in the forenoon. Thus the three days' fast would last from the afternoon of the first to the forenoon of the third day, i.e., from 40 to 45 hours. מַלְכוּת תִּלְבַּשׁ, she put on royalty, royal dignity, i.e., arrayed herself in royal apparel. Bertheau thinks that the word לְבוּשׁ has been inadvertently omitted before מַלְכוּת; but such a conjecture is without sufficient support, the passages Est 6:8 and Est 8:15 being of another kind. The expression is elliptical, and מַלְכוּת is easily completed by the notion לְבוּשׁ furnished by the verb.
Est 5:2
When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she obtained favour in his eyes (see rem. on Est 2:9), and he held out to her the golden sceptre that was in his hand; and Esther drew near and touched the top of the sceptre, probably kissed it, as the Vulgate renders the word.
Est 5:3-4
The king, concluding from the circumstance of her appearing there unsummoned, that she had some urgent matter to bring before him, said to her: “What wilt thou, Queen Esther? and what is thy request? To the half of the kingdom it shall be granted thee.” A short expression for: if thy request relates even to the half of the kingdom, it shall be granted. Est 5:4. Esther, however, for the present requested nothing further, than that on that day (to-day) the king and Haman should come to the banquet she had prepared. עַל טֹּוב אִם like Est 1:19.
Est 5:5
The king commanded Haman to hasten thither, to do as the queen had said. מַהֲרוּ, hastened Haman, i.e., sent to fetch him quickly. מִהַר like 2Ch 18:8; 1Ki 22:9. לַעֲשֹׂות, that the word of the queen might be done, carried out.
Est 5:6
At the repast, and indeed at “the banquet of wine,” when the greatest cheerfulness would prevail, the king repeated his question as to the desire of the queen, making the same promise as in Est 5:3. וְתֵעָשׂ, an abbreviated form of the imperfect תֵּעָשֶׂה, is optative or jussive: and it shall be done.
Est 5:7-8
Esther answered: “My petition and my request - if I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to do my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and to-morrow I will do as the king hath said,” i.e., make known my request. Though the king had, in the midst of the gaiety, asked what was Esther's request, she did not esteem the time an appropriate one for expressing it. She begins: my petition and my request, - but then stops, and says only, if the king will do her the favour to come with Haman to a banquet again on the morrow, she will then bring forward her petition. Esther invited Haman with the king on both occasions, that, as Calovius remarks, eum apud regem praesentem accusaret decreti surrepti contra suos populares nomine, et in os omnes cavillandi vias ei praecluderet.