Esther has come unbidden before the king. He must decide whether or not to acept or to reject her appearance. He is holding out the scepter before her in acceptance.
4 When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther,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.6 For how can I bear to see the calamity that is coming to my people? Or how can I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”
