Bible Strands
Esther 5:8
If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, may the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king’s question.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Esther addresses the king and Haman during a banquet invitation, immediately following her initial petition in Esther 5:7. She speaks at a calculated pause after delaying her true request to secure their attendance.
The words — The Hebrew terms חֵן (chen) and מָצָ֨אתִי (ma.Tza.ti) literally render “favor” and “I have found,” framing her appeal as a conditional request for royal grace. These lexical choices establish the formal protocol required to approach an absolute monarch.
The thread — The identical conditional structure “if I have found favor” reappears in Esther 7:3 when she finally presents her life petition. Proverbs 16:9 contrasts this human conditional planning with the assertion that the LORD determines the final steps.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to observe how strategic delay and court protocol function as necessary precursors to direct confrontation with power. It demands attention to the mechanics of conditional appeals before any divine intervention is revealed.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do to morrow as the king hath said.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
- Esther 7:3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request.
- Esther 6:1 That night sleep escaped the king; so he ordered the Book of Records, the Chronicles, to be brought in and read to him.
- Esther 8:5 “If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if I have found favor in his sight, and the matter seems proper to the king, and I am pleasing in his sight, may an order be written to revoke the letters that the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, wrote to destroy the Jews in all the king’s provinces.