< Esther 7 >

1 And the king comes in, and Haman, to drink with Esther the queen,
And so the king and Haman entered to drink with the queen.
2 and the king says to Esther also on the second day, during the banquet of wine, “What [is] your petition, Esther, O queen? And it is given to you; and what [is] your request? To the half of the kingdom—and it is done.”
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 Esther the queen answers and says, “If I have found grace in your eyes, O king, and if to the king [it be] good, let my life be given to me at my petition, and my people at 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 we have been sold, I and my people, to cut off, to slay, and to destroy; and if for menservants and for maidservants we had been sold I had kept silent—but the adversity is not equal to the loss of the king.”
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 King Ahasuerus says, indeed, he says to Esther the queen, “Who [is] he—this one? And where [is] this one whose heart has filled him to do so?”
And king Artaxerxes answered and said, “Who is this, and of what power, that he would dare to do these things?”
6 And Esther says, “The man—adversary and enemy—[is] this wicked Haman”; and Haman has been afraid at the presence of the king and of 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 has risen, in his fury, from the banquet of wine, to the garden of the house, and Haman has remained to seek for his life from Esther the queen, for he has seen that evil has been determined against him by the king.
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 has turned back out of the garden of the house to the house of the banquet of wine, and Haman is falling on the couch on which Esther [is], and the king says, “Also to subdue the queen with me in the house?” The word has gone out from the mouth of the king, and the face of Haman they have covered.
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 Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, says before the king, “Also behold, the tree that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing in the house of Haman, in height fifty cubits”; and the king says, “Hang him on it.”
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 And they hang Haman on the tree that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the fury of the king has lain down.
And so Haman was hanged on the gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger was quieted.

< Esther 7 >