Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Esther 7

Haman Hanged Instead of Mordecai

Esther 7:¹ So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther.

Esther 7:² And on the second day, at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”

Esther 7:³ Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

Esther 7:⁴ For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”

Esther 7:⁵ So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”

Esther 7:⁶ And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!”

So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

Esther 7:⁷ Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king.

Esther 7:⁸ When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?”

As the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

Esther 7:⁹ Now Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! The gallows (Lit. tree or wood), fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.”

• The gallows was more like a tree on which a person was hung (like a crucifixion) until they died.
• One gets the impression Harbonah wasn’t fond of Haman.

Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”

• “Give Haman an inch and you will find him lynched.”
• (Esther 7) Haman’s credit card of debt for sin from Satan has come due. It can happen in an instant. The moment the king walked in on Haman, his head was being covered.
• The World’s credit card of debt from Satan for their sin came due in one moment – when the first drop of rain fell on Noah’s ark.
• (Numbers 16) Likewise, the Lord spoke to Moses to have him tell the assembly to separate themselves from Korah, Dathan and Abiram, “that I may consume them in one moment”.
• (Daniel 5) Daniel told the king Belshazzar “God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians” –  That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.
• (II Chronicles 26) When king Uzziah was confronted by the priests not to go into the temple to burn incense because God had only sanctioned the sons of Aaron, he became angry. “And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar.” In an instant.

• Only Jesus can wipe out a debt of sin. A day is coming when your credit card of sin will become due and it will happen in the blink of an eye. Do not neglect so great a salvation.

Esther 7:¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.

• The story of Esther is a shadow of things to come during the Seven-Year tribulation. Esther is like the Jews who are set to be annihilated. The tribulation is the time the decree will go out to kill the Jews. The King’s wrath subsides at the end of the tribulation when He (Jesus) saves the Jews from total extermination.

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