Esther 7:3

7:3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have met with your approval, 1  O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition.

Esther 7:7

7:7 In rage the king arose from the banquet of wine and withdrew to the palace garden. Meanwhile, Haman stood to beg Queen Esther for his life, 2  for he realized that the king had now determined a catastrophic end for him. 3 

1 tn Heb “If I have found grace in your eyes” (so also in 8:5); TEV “If it please Your Majesty.”

2 sn There is great irony here in that the man who set out to destroy all the Jews now finds himself begging for his own life from a Jew.

3 tn Heb “for he saw that calamity was determined for him from the king”; NAB “the king had decided on his doom”; NRSV “the king had determined to destroy him.”