Esther 7
1 The king and Haman went to Queen Esther's dinner.
So the king and Aman went in to drink with the queen.
2 At this second dinner, as they were drinking wine, the king asked Esther again, “What are you really asking for, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What do you want? You shall have it, as much as half my empire!”
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.
3 Queen Esther answered, “If the king looks on me favorably, and if it please Your Majesty to grant me my life, that is my request; and the lives of my people, that is what I ask.
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 my people and I have been sold to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. If we had only been sold as slaves, I would have kept quiet, because our suffering would not have justified disturbing the king.”
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.
5 The king asked Queen Esther, demanding to know, “Who is this? Where is the man who has dared to do this?”
And the king said, Who [is] this that has dared to do this thing?
6 “The man, the opponent, the enemy, is this evil Haman!” Esther replied. Haman shook with terror in front of the king and the queen.
And Esther said, the adversary [is] Aman, this wicked man. Then Aman was troubled before the king and the queen.
7 The king was furious. He got up, leaving his wine, and went out into the palace garden. Haman stayed behind to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he realized the king planned an evil end for him.
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.
8 When the king came back in from the palace garden to the dining room, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Queen Esther was. The king shouted out, “Is he even going to rape the queen here in the palace, right in front of me?” As soon as the king said this, the servants covered Haman's face.
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.
9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “Haman set up a pole beside his house for Mordecai, the one whose report saved the king's life. The pole is fifty cubits high.” “Impale him on it!” the king ordered.
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.
10 So they impaled Haman on the pole that he had set up for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king died down.
So Aman was hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mardochaeus: and then the king's wrath was appeased.
