Esther 7:3
What does Esther 7:3 mean?
A plain-English look at Esther 7:3 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Esther 7:3 means
Esther speaks with humility and courage, tying her request to the king’s favor: “If I have found favor… if it please the king.” She asks first for her own life, then for her people’s, revealing that the danger is personal, not abstract. Esther identifies with the Jews, stepping out from royal concealment to solidarity with the condemned. Her words dignify her people as “my people,” countering Haman’s dehumanizing plot. By making her appeal relational rather than political, she invites the king’s protective instincts. The verse shows how truth, stated plainly and respectfully, can pierce courts and consciences alike, opening the door for justice.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
KJV
King James Version · 1611Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Then Esther the queen, answering, said, If I have your approval, O king, and if it is the king's pleasure, let my life be given to me in answer to my prayer, and my people at my request:
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862And Esther the queen answereth and saith, `If I have found grace in thine eyes, O king, and if to the king <FI>it be<Fi> good, let my life be given to me at my petition, and my people at my request;
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Then she answered: If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please thee, give me my life for which I ask, and my people for which I request.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890And Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found grace in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request;
Context
Esther’s reply comes at the king’s urging and becomes the first clear unveiling of the crisis to him. Previously, Ahasuerus consented to a decree unwittingly harmful to Esther herself. Now, in one sentence, she personalizes the edict’s threat. The following verse explains the nature of the threat—total destruction—while still withholding the name of the instigator. This structure heightens the king’s shock and prepares him to demand the culprit, driving the narrative rapidly toward confrontation.
v.2And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.
v.3This passage
v.4for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s damage.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Esther 7:7
And the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.
- Esther 5:8
If I have found favor 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.
- Esther 4:8
Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him, for her people.
- 2 Kings 1:13
And again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
- Psalms 122:6
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: They shall prosper that love thee.
- Jeremiah 38:26
then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there.