Esther 7
1 So the king and Aman went in to drink with the queen.
And so the king and Haman entered 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] your request, and what [is] your petition? and it shall be [done] for you, to the half of my kingdom.
And the king said to her again on the second day, after he was warmed with wine, “What is your request, Esther, so that it may be given to you? And what do you want done? Even if you ask for half of my kingdom, you will obtain it.”
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.
She answered him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it pleases you, spare my soul, I ask you, and spare my people, I beg you.
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 [is] not worthy of the king's palace.
For I and my people have been handed over to be crushed, to be slain, and to perish. And if we were only being sold as servants and slaves, the evil might be tolerable, and I would have mourned in silence. But now our enemy is one whose cruelty overflows upon the king.”
5 And the king said, Who [is] this that has dared to do this thing?
And king Artaxerxes answered and said, “Who is this, and of what power, that he would dare to do these things?”
6 And Esther said, the adversary [is] Aman, this wicked man. Then Aman was troubled before the king and the queen.
And Esther said, “This is our most wicked enemy and foe: Haman!” Hearing this, Haman was suddenly dumbfounded, unable to bear the faces of the king and the queen.
7 And the king rose up from the banquet to go into the garden: and Aman began to entreat the queen; for he saw that he was in an evil case.
But the king, being angry, rose up and, from the place of the feast, entered into the arboretum of the garden. Haman likewise rose up to entreat Esther the queen for his soul, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king.
8 And the king returned from the garden; and Aman had fallen upon the bed, intreating the queen. And the king said, Will you even force [my] wife in my house? And when Aman heard it, he changed countenance.
When the king returned from the arboretum of the garden and entered into the place of the feast, he found Haman collapsed on the couch on which Esther lay, and he said, “And now he wishes to oppress the queen, in my presence, in my house!” The word had not yet gone out of the king’s mouth, and immediately they covered his face.
9 And Bugathan, one of the chamberlains, said to the king, Behold, Aman has also prepared a gallows for Mardochaeus, 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.
And Harbona, one of the eunuchs who stood in ministry to the king, said, “Behold the wood, which he had prepared for Mordecai, who spoke up on behalf of the king, stands in Haman’s house, having a height of fifty cubits.” The king said to him, “Hang him from it.”
10 So Aman was hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mardochaeus: and then the king's wrath was appeased.
And so Haman was hanged on the gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger was quieted.
