Esther replied, “This wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy.” Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen.
Parallel translations
- WEB Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
- KJV And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
- BSB Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.
- NKJV And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!” So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.
- NASB And Esther said, “A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Esther names the wicked Haman as the adversary, and he is terrified before the king and queen. The enemy stands exposed and undone.
Overview
With a single bold declaration, Esther unmasks Haman, whose terror reveals his guilt. The accuser of God's people is suddenly the accused, dread replacing his pride. The verse marks the decisive reversal in which the persecutor is brought to judgment, a pattern fulfilled in the final overthrow of all who oppose God's people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Job 18:5–12“Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.
- 1 Cor 5:13But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”
- 2 Th 2:8Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;
- Ps 139:19–22If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
- Ps 73:17–20Until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.
- Neh 6:16When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they lost their confidence; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.
- Esth 3:10The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.
- Job 15:21–22A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.
- Ps 27:2When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
- Ps 73:5–9They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men.
- 1 Sam 24:13As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness;’ but my hand will not be on you.
- Prov 24:24–25He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous”; peoples will curse him, and nations will abhor him —
- Eccl 5:8If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter: for one official is eyed by a higher one; and there are officials over them.
- Prov 16:14The king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but a wise man will pacify it.
- Dan 5:5–6In the same hour, the fingers of a man’s hand came out and wrote near the lamp stand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
- Isa 21:4My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Though God is never named, his hidden hand preserves the people from whom the Messiah will come — a deliverance 'for such a time as this' that anticipates the open deliverance of Christ.
How Esther 7:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.