Esther 8:5 - Exposition

If it please the king , etc. The long preface of four clauses, winding up with "If I be pleasing," is indicative of Esther's doubt how the king will receive her suggestion that it should be written to reverse the letters (comp. Esther 3:13 ) devised by Haman . To ask the king to unsay his own words was impossible. By representing the letters as devised by Haman, and written by Haman, Esther avoids doing so. But she thereby blinks the truth. In excuse she adds the striking distich contained in the next verse—"For how could I endure to see the evil that is coming on my people? or how could I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?"