Esther again followed a typically Eastern approach, embellishing her request with expressions of submission. This time, she used not just two such expressions (cf. Esther 5:8; Esther 7:3) but four! Clearly she was aware of the impossible
nature of her request. A edict that carried the seal of a Persian king could not be revoked. Esther’s request would put Ahasuerus in a very difficult position.
Note how personal motivations formed part of Esther’s lengthy introduction. She appealed to her husband’s love, as many wives had done before and after her! She had the wisdom not to refer to the king’s own guilt in the matter (see Proverbs 15:1; Proverbs 25:15). She only asked him to overrule the edict issued by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha.
5 Esther rose and stood before the king. And she said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the thing seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king.