Esther 7, Gallows

Queen Esther has invited the king and the enemy Haman to a dinner.  Before the dinner, the king has realized that he never honored Mordecai and so takes steps to award Esther's uncle, the man who previously refused to bow down to Mordecai.

Esther 7: 1-4, Spare my people

So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther, and as they were drinking wine on that second day, the king again asked, "Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted."

Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life--this is my petition. And spare my people--this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king."

 

(NIV footnotes:  The last phrase might be translated, "but the compensation our adversary offers cannot be compared with the loss the king would suffer.")

Esther lays out the genocide that has been prepared for her people. She says that if the decree were only to enslave her people, she would not express concerns to the might kings. But the decree is to annihilate her people!

It is not clear if the king understands that she (or Haman) are explicitly identifying the Jews.

Esther 7: 5-6, This vile man

King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, "Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?"

Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman." 

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

Esther points her finger at Haman. Haman is the one who intends to annihilate the people that include the queen.  Haman now sees, with horror, the disaster coming.

Esther 7: 7-8a, He molests my wife!

The king got up in a rage, left his wine and went out into the palace garden. But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life. 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, "Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?" 

The king, surprised by this sudden turn of events, stalks out into the palace garden. While he is collecting his thoughts, Haman, in desperation, begs for his life before the queen. In doing so, he collapses on the couch where the queen is resting. In a culture where only eunuch's are allowed close to the king's woman, this looks very bad! The king, returning from the garden, thinks the worst of Haman's actions.

According to Huey, Jewish targums on this event claim that the angel Gabriel pushed Haman!  😁  I don't think the targums can add to the drama already unfolding here. The audience, rooting for the beautiful queen and despising the hateful tyrant, are enraptured.

Esther 7: 8b-10, Hang him!

As soon as the word left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, "A gallows seventy-five feet high stands by Haman's house. He had it made for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king." 

The king said, "Hang him on it!"

So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's fury subsided.

Haman makes everything worse by trying to plead with Esther but appearing to molest her.  His execution is swift.  His face is quickly covered by the king's servants and Haman is hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai!

Harbona is possibly the same eunuch as listed as serving the king in Esther 1:10.

In looking at the imprecatory psalms, I was impressed that most of them ask for some type of "boomerang", that they request that the evil plots of enemies rebound back onto them, that arrows shot at good people turn around and impale the shooter. This story is a classic example of this wish -- the evil Haman is executed on the very gallows that he built.