EXPOSITION
AHASUERUS RECEIVING ESTHER FAVOURABLY, SHE INVITES HIM AND HAMAN TO A BANQUET. ALLOWED TO ASK WHATEVER BOON SHE LIKES, SHE INVITES THEM BOTH TO A SECOND BANQUET (Esther 5:1-8). Esther, we must suppose, kept her fast religiously for the time that she had specified (Esther 4:16), and then, "on the third day," made her venture. It has been asked, Why did she not request an audience, which any subject might do, and then prefer her request to the king? But this would probably have been wholly contrary to Persian custom; and to do such a thing may not even have occulted to her as a possible course. Set audiences were for strangers, or at any rote for outsiders, not for the members of the court circle. To have demanded one would have set all the court suspecting and conjecturing, and would certainly not have tended to predispose the king in her favour. She took, therefore, the step which had seemed to her the one possible thing to do from the time that Mordecai made his application to her, and entering the inner court, stood conspicuously opposite the gate of the king's throne-room, intending to attract his regard. It happened that the king was seated on his throne, looking down the pillared vista towards the door (verse 1), which was of course open, and his eye rested on the graceful form (Esther 2:7) of his young wife with surprise, and at the same time with pleasure (verse 2). Instantly he held out to her the golden sceptre, which showed that her breach of etiquette was forgiven; and, assuming that nothing but some urgent need would have induced her to imperil her life, he followed up his act of grace with an inquiry and a promise—"What is thy request, queen Esther? It shall even be given thee to the half of the kingdom" (verse 3). The reader expects an immediate petition on the part of the queen for the life of her people; but Esther is too timid, perhaps too wary, to venture all at once. She will wait, she will gain time, she will be sure that she has the king's full affection, before she makes the appeal that must decide everything; and so for the present she is content with inviting Ahasuerus and Haman to a "banquet of wine" (verse 4). It is not quite clear why she associates Haman with the king; but perhaps she wishes to prevent him from suspecting that she looks on him as an enemy. At the customary time, towards evening, the banquet takes place; and in the course of it the king repeats his offer to grant her any boon she pleases, "even to the half of the kingdom" (verse 6). Still doubtful, still hesitating, still unwilling to make the final cast that is life or death to her, she once more temporises, invites the pair to a second banquet on the morrow, and promises that then at last she will unbosom herself and say what it is which she desires (verses 7, 8). The king once more accedes to her wish, as we gather from the sequel (Esther 7:1); and so the final determination of the matter is put off for another day.