Let my life be granted me. That I should not be slain on the thirteenth of Adar, for you have issued an edict of massacre upon my people and my heritage.

And my people. Shall be given me in my request, that they should not be slain. Now if you ask, “What does it concern you?” [my answer is] “For how can I see, etc.?”¹

footnotes: ¹ Below 8:6.

For the oppressor has no regard for losses incurred by his majesty. He is not concerned about the king’s loss, for if he had sought your benefit, he should have said, “Sell them as slaves and maidservants and take the money,” or “keep them now to be your slaves, they and their descendants.”

King Achashveirosh spoke. He said to Queen Esther. Wherever it states, “and he said ... and he said,” twice, it is to be expounded upon. And the Midrashic interpretation of this is: Originally, he would speak to her through an intermediary, but now that he knew that she was of a royal family, he spoke to her personally.²

footnotes: ² Maseches Megillah 16a.

That it would end up. The evil, the hatred, and the vengeance were decided.

Haman had fallen. The angel pushed him.³

footnotes: ³ Ibid. The literal translation is “and Haman was falling,” meaning that he tried to rise but the angel kept pushing him onto the couch and into a compromising position, which infuriated the king even more.

On the couch upon which Esther reclined. Their custom was to sit at a meal [reclining] on their sides on couches, as it is stated in the beginning of the Book, “couches of gold and silver”⁴ for those who participated in the feast.

footnotes: ⁴ Above 1:6.

Even to overpower the queen. This is an expression of wonder. לִכְבּוֹשׁ [denotes] to subdue with force, as in “and the land is conquered [וְנִכְבְּשָׁה].”⁵

footnotes: ⁵ Bamidbar 32:22.

Moreover, there is the gallows. He “also” committed another evil, that he prepared the gallows to hang the king’s friend, who saved the king from [being] poison[ed].