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Esther 5 · a question people ask

Why didn't Esther make her request at the first banquet?

In the text

The chapter doesn't say. It tells what she did. At the banquet of wine the king asked, "What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed" (5:6). She began, "My petition and my request is this" (5:7), and then asked for another banquet: "let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said" (5:8). No reason is given, and these notes don't supply one. Between the two banquets the book tells of the gallows Haman had made (5:14), and of the night when "the king couldn’t sleep" (Esther 6:1). It doesn't say Esther knew of either. At the second banquet she makes her request (Esther 7:3).

The verses

“The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.” Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and my request is this. If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.””
Esther 5:6-8 · World English Bible
“Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet.” This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.”
Esther 5:14 · World English Bible
“On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king.”
Esther 6:1 · World English Bible
“Then Esther the queen answered, “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 7:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Esther 5

Esther 5: All this avails me nothing

Offered "even to the half of the kingdom" (5:3), Esther asked for a banquet. Haman left it "joyful and glad of heart" (5:9), counted up his glory, told in the words of his promotion (3:1, 5:11), and said "all this avails me nothing" (5:13) so long as one man sat at the king's gate. The gallows was his wife's and friends' idea (5:14).

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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