Dr Paul Allen

Mordecai and Esther (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it" (Esther 5:14) In the Book of Esther , much of the plot is set in motion by the hatred of Haman for Mordecai. When Haman expresses his resentment of Mordecai to his family, they recommend, "Let a gallows fifty cubits (22m / 75 feet) high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hanged upon it" (Esther 5:14, ESV ). Some of the more recent English translations offer something different from the ESV. The TNIV , for example, reads, "Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it."  The NLT offers something similar: "Set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall, and in the morning ask the king to impale Mordecai on it." At the end of chapter 7, Haman ends up being "hanged" on that

Image via Wikipedia "And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched the top of the sceptre." ( Esther 5:2 )   Queen Esther knew she was risking her life when she came unbidden into the presence of the mighty king of Persia in his throne room . Even though she was his favorite wife, he did not know she was a Jew nor that she was hoping to get Haman's terrible order for genocide of the Jews reversed. She knew that it was a capital offense for even a queen to go into the throne room without authorization, and that only the king--by holding out to her his golden scepter--could save her life. But she also knew that she had "come to the kingdom for such a time as this," and so she said: "If I perish, I perish" ( 4:14, 16 ). The king, however, did extend his golden sceptre to her, and e