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Esther 4 · a question people ask

Why didn't Esther simply go in to the king?

In the text

She tells Mordecai why, in her own words: "All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live" (4:11). And she adds, "I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days" (4:11). The chapter doesn't say why she hadn't been called, and these notes don't guess. When she decides to go, she says it plainly: "Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law" (4:16). In Hebrew, law in 4:11 and 4:16 is the same word, dat (tap law). The next chapter tells what happened when she went (Esther 5:1-2).

The verses

““All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.””
Esther 4:11 · World English Bible
““Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.””
Esther 4:16 · World English Bible
“Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal clothing and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, next to the king’s house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house. When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther came near and touched the top of the scepter.”
Esther 5:1-2 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Esther 4

Esther 4: For such a time as this

Mordecai said relief and deliverance "will come to the Jews from another place" (4:14), and never said from where; in Hebrew, deliverance comes nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Esther answered with his own word: "if I perish, I perish" (4:16). And the man who had given her orders "did according to all that Esther had commanded him" (4:17).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions