Discovery BoxEsther 5:7 
Context5:7 Esther responded, 1 “My request and my petition is this:
Esther 5:6
Context5:6 While at the banquet of wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your request? It shall be given to you. What is your petition? Ask for as much as half the kingdom, 2 and it shall be done!”
Esther 7:3
Context7:3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have met with your approval, 3 O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition.
Esther 4:8
Context4:8 He also gave him a written copy of the law that had been disseminated 4 in Susa for their destruction so that he could show it to Esther and talk to her about it. He also gave instructions that she should go to the king to implore him and petition him on behalf of her people.
Esther 5:8
Context5:8 If I have found favor in the king’s sight and if the king is inclined 5 to grant my request and perform my petition, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them. At that time 6 I will do as the king wishes. 7
Esther 7:2
Context7:2 On the second day of the banquet of wine the king asked Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your petition? Ask up to half the kingdom, and it shall be done!”
Esther 9:12
Context9:12 Then the king said to Queen Esther, “In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman! What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? What is your request? It shall be given to you. What other petition do you have? It shall be done.”
1 tn Heb “answered and said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.
2 sn As much as half the kingdom. Such a statement would no doubt have been understood for the exaggeration that it clearly was. Cf. the similar NT scene recorded in Mark 6:23, where Herod makes a similar promise to the daughter of Herodias. In that case the request was for the head of John the Baptist, which is a lot less than half the kingdom.
3 tn Heb “If I have found grace in your eyes” (so also in 8:5); TEV “If it please Your Majesty.”
4 tn Heb “given” (so KJV); NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “issued”; NIV “published”; NAB “promulgated.”
5 tn Heb “if upon the king it is good.” Cf. the similar expression in v. 4, which also occurs in 7:3; 8:5; 9:13.
6 tn Heb “and tomorrow” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “and then.”
7 tn Heb “I will do according to the word of the king,” i.e., answer the question that he has posed. Cf. NCV “Then I will answer your question about what I want.”
