Bible Commentary - Esther 5

In this chapter, Esther, Haman and the king eat a meal together and Haman plots the downfall of Mordecai.

This chapter has one of my favorite parts of the story, at the very beginning in verses 1 and 2.  This moment when Esther appears before the king, and she is clothed in her finest royal robes, knowing that she is placing her life in the king’s hands.  In this moment, the king may choose if Esther will live or die.  From the previous chapter, we can clearly sense Esther’s anxiety and tension about appearing before the king, highlighted in verse 3 when the king asks what is “troubling” Esther.  At the same time, in my imagination I picture the king as friendly and relaxed.  The language is very muted and neutral so it doesn’t really speak to the king’s emotional state, but his reception of Esther is polite, generous and kind.

After this very first moment though, it seems clear to me that the crisis is over; the king receives Esther favorably and in my mind, it’s all but certain that Esther’s request will be granted.  That said, I think Esther handles the situation beautifully.  First of all, we see Esther dress in her finest apparel.  This is a subtle point, but I think it’s important; we know for a fact that the king loves extravagent displays and he loves the fine things of life.  I think Esther is clearly playing to his personality because these kinds of formal affairs are exactly what the king enjoys.  Second, Esther invites the king to a banquet.  Not only does Esther invite the king to a banquet, but at the conclusion of this banquet she petitions the king to attend a second banquet, the following day.  From the very beginning of the book, we know that the king loves feasts and banquets and this is what Esther is using her.  I wouldn’t want to call it manipulation exactly, but I think Esther is using her knowledge of the king’s personality to make her request more appealing to him, and I think that she is being very clever and effective at it.

One question that generally comes up in this chapter is why Esther asked the king to go with her to a second banquet.  Why not ask for deliverance at the first banquet?  I think it’s possible anxiety may have been a factor; she was probably uncomfortable making her request to the king and wanted to put it off.  However, we could just as well question why Esther invited the king to the first banquet; why not make her request in the king’s throne room?  I think the most likely answer is what I mentioned above: the king loves banquets; the king loves pomp and circumstance.  Inviting him to a banquet is likely to make him receive Esther more favorably, and if one banquet is good then certainly two banquets is better.  From a story point of view, the two banquets also creates more dramatic tension and we will see in the next chapter or two that it plays out in a very particular way.  But I think the best explanation is that Esther is simply accommodating what she knows about the king’s personality.

To go back to the personality studies that we started earlier, we see three actors in this chapter: the king, Esther and Haman.  I already mentioned how Esther is working to manipulate the king into saving her people, but what do we see from the king and Haman?  In short, both of them are generally consistent with what we saw previously.

The king goes along with Esther’s plots without any objection or apprehension.  It looks like he’s simply enjoying himself and agrees to whatever Esther asks for.  Haman is much more interesting.  In this chapter, we see Haman’s pride shine through above everything else.  After attending the banquet (the fourth feast in the book), Haman is “glad and pleased of heart” (v. 9), but when he sees Mordecai refuse to rise or tremble before him, he is enraged.  This is the second time that Mordecai has “refused” Haman, though the first time around it was Mordecai refusing to bow; now he is refusing to stand.  This symmetry (between chapter 3 and chapter 5) serves to highlight the section between them, particularly chapter 4 and the beginning of 5 when Mordecai asks Esther to approach the king, and her favorable reception.  This kind of repetition is a framing technique very similar to chiasm, which emphasizes the part of the text in the middle.

Verse 11 is even more striking, because when Haman gets home the first thing he does is start bragging about how much money he has, how many sons he has, and how many times the king has honored him.  Verse 12 is an ironic conclusion because he mentions the feast with queen Esther as one of his “glories”, when in fact Esther is going to use that feast to undermine his position and accuse him before the king.  It’s a subtle jab, but Haman’s destruction is already in progress, and yet he thinks it is to his glory.  In verse 13, we see Haman’s fundamental insecurity emerge once again, because no matter how much money and glory Haman might possess, he cannot abide even a single man refusing to bow to him.

Finally, in verse 14 Haman builds a gallows to kill Mordecai, showing that even if Esther can reverse the king’s command, the danger is perhaps not yet over; Haman may still succeed in killing Mordecai even if Esther attains mercy for her people.

The last comment I would like to make here is to reference again the additions of Greek Esther (GE).  There is a long section at the beginning of chapter 5 that is included in Greek Esther and not the Hebrew version.  I highly recommend that everyone read it because it’s a really fantastic text.  Anyway, it is Greek Esther chapters 13-15 and it includes a prayer of Mordecai, a prayer of Esther and an expanded scene describing Esther’s first appearance before the king (Esther 5:1-2 in the Hebrew text).  I don’t have anything to say about the prayers, but the description of Esther’s appearance before the king is truly astonishing.  It describes Esther as being “terrified” before the king, who was “seated on his royal throne, clothed in the full array of his majesty, all covered with gold and precious stones” (GE 15:6).  Not only that, it says that the king “looked at her in fierce anger”, at which point the queen “faltered… and collapsed… Then God changed the spirit of the king to gentleness, and in alarm he sprang from his throne and took her in his arms.” (GE 15:7-8).  Later she faints a second time after describing the king as “wonderful, my lord, and your countenance is full of grace.” (GE 15:14-15).

It’s honestly kind of ridiculous stuff, a fairly blatant dramatization and while the story is consistent with the Hebrew text, the general tone and writing style is extremely different and distinct.  Greek Esther basically turns this part of the story into a romantic drama, which is generally inconsistent with the rest of the biblical text (in terms of tone and literary style).  Nevertheless, I think it’s wonderfully entertaining stuff.

As this chapter concludes, the story remains in motion.  Haman has declared he will go and ask for Mordecai’s death, and Esther has petitioned the king and Haman to attend a second banquet.  In the next chapter, Haman’s request for Mordecai’s death is interrupted in a most surprising fashion.