Esther 8:1-8
She Fell at His Feet
1That same day King Xerxes awarded Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai entered the king’s presence because Esther had revealed his relation to her.
2The king removed the signet ring he had recovered from Haman and presented it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai over the estate of Haman.
3And once again, Esther addressed the king. She fell at his feet weeping and begged him to revoke the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews.
4The king extended the gold scepter toward Esther, and she arose and stood before the king.
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.
6For how could I bear to see the disaster that would befall my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”
7So King Xerxes said to Esther the Queen and Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Haman’s estate to Esther, and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews.
8Now you may write in the king’s name as you please regarding the Jews, and seal it with the royal signet ring. For a decree that is written in the name of the king and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked.”
Berean Standard Bible
Haman is dead, and the chapter opens with everything being handed round. Esther gets his estate. Mordecai is brought into the king's presence, because Esther has finally told her husband how the two of them are related. Then the ring.
The king removed the signet ring he had recovered from Haman and presented it to Mordecai.
It is the same ring. The king took it off his own hand in chapter three and gave it to a man who used it to order a nation destroyed, and now it comes off Haman and goes onto Mordecai. The object has not changed at all. Everything depends on whose hand it sits in.
You would think that settles it, and it does not, because the decree is still out there. Haman being dead does nothing to the document. It is written, sealed and delivered to every province, with a date on it, and the date has not arrived.
So Esther has to do the whole thing again.
She goes back to the king, falls at his feet, and weeps. He extends the gold scepter a second time and she gets up. Nothing about her position has become safe. She is queen, she owns the dead man's house, and she is still on the floor in front of her husband hoping for the scepter.
Then listen to how she asks.
If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the matter seems proper to the king, and I am pleasing in his sight
Four conditions before she reaches the request. A person talks like that when she knows how little her standing will protect her if the man in front of her changes his mind. Then she asks him to revoke the letters.
His answer is not the one she asked for. He reminds her what he has already given, points out that Haman has been hanged, and then tells them both that a decree written in the king's name and sealed with the royal ring cannot be revoked. Write whatever you want, he says. Seal it yourself.
He is not refusing to help. He is telling them that the thing he set in motion by not asking a question cannot be recalled by him or by anyone, and then he hands the problem to the two people it belongs to.
How We Know
The book tracks one object through three hands and never explains its significance.
Esther 3:10 has the king removing the signet ring and giving it to Haman, and the decree of chapter 3 is sealed with it.
Esther 8:2 has the same ring, recovered from Haman, given to Mordecai. Esther 8:8 has the king telling Mordecai to seal the new order with it.
The ring is what makes each decree unrevokable, including the one they now need undone. Following a single detail across five chapters, and letting it work without comment, strongly supports a book composed as one piece.
Questions
1 What happens to Haman's signet ring?
AnswerThe king recovers it and gives it to Mordecai. It is the same ring that sealed the decree against the Jews. Nothing about the ring changed, only the hand wearing it.
2 Haman is dead. Why is Esther still on the floor weeping?
AnswerBecause the decree outlived him. It is written, sealed and sitting in every province with a date attached. Killing the man who wrote it does not touch the document.
3 Count the conditions Esther puts in front of her request. What does that tell you about how safe she feels?
AnswerFour of them, before she gets to what she wants. She is the queen, she owns Haman's estate, and she is still stacking up qualifiers in case her husband is in a different mood today.
4 The king says the decree cannot be revoked, and tells them to write their own. Has somebody ever handed you back a problem they helped cause?
AnswerIt is a peculiar feeling, being given authority instead of a solution. He does not fix it, and he does not refuse either. He gives them the ring and lets them work out what to do with it.
What This Means for Us
The man is dead and the damage is still in the post. A good deal of harm works that way, and children who assume that dealing with the person deals with the problem should hear it said plainly.
An apology does not unsend the message. A resignation does not unspeak the rumor. Haman on the gallows changes nothing about the thirteenth of Adar, and Esther has to go back into that room a second time and start again.
So when we do damage, we should expect to be dealing with it after we are sorry. And when somebody else does damage to us, the making right will usually be slower and more tiring than the wrong was.
Prayer
Father, we say sorry and expect the harm to stop, and it does not always work that way. Give us patience for the long clearing up. Thank you that Esther kept going back, and give us that same stubbornness where something still needs mending. Amen.