Then the king asked her, “What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom.”
⛓ Read Esther 5 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion2
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Ahasuerus, at a banquet, offers Esther her request 'up to half of my kingdom,' the exact royal-oath formula Herod swears to the dancing girl (also Esther 5:6; 7:2). The verbal correspondence is precise and distinctive, making this a near-quotation of the Persian-court motif. High volume and recurrence within Esther.
High confidenceHerod's oath, 'to give her whatever she should ask,' verbally echoes Ahasuerus to Esther: 'What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom' (cf. Esther 5:6; 7:2). The extravagant open-ended royal promise is the same narrative device, here turned to murder rather than deliverance.
Medium confidence