< Esther 7 >
1 So the king and Aman went in to drink with the queen.
2 And the king said to Esther at the banquet on the second day, What is it, queen Esther? and what [is] thy request, and what [is] thy petition? and it shall be [done] for thee, to the half of my kingdom.
3 And she answered and said, If I have found favour in the sight of the king, let [my] life be granted to my petition, and my people to my request.
4 For both I and my people are sold for destruction, and pillage, and slavery; [both] we and our children for bondmen and bondwomen: and I consented not to it, for the slanderer [is] not worthy of the king’s palace.
5 And the king said, Who [is] this that has dared to do this thing?
6 And Esther said, The adversary [is] Aman, this wicked man. Then Aman was troubled before the king and the queen.
7 And the king rose up from the banquet to go into the garden: and Aman began to intreat the queen; for he saw that he was in an evil case.
8 And the king returned from the garden; and Aman had fallen upon the bed, intreating the queen. And the king said, Wilt thou even force [my] wife in my house? And when Aman heard it, he changed countenance.
9 And Bugathan, one of the chamberlains, said to the king, Behold, Aman has also prepared a gallows for Mardochæus, who spoke concerning the king, and a gallows of fifty cubits high has been set up in the premises of Aman. And the king said, Let him be hanged thereon.
10 So Aman was hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mardochæus: and then the king’s wrath was appeased.
