Esther 7
1 So the king and Haman came in, to banquet with Esther the queen.
So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen,
2 Then said the king unto Esther, on the second day also, during the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, Queen Esther, that it may be granted thee? and what is thy request—unto the half of the kingdom—that it may be performed?
and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”
3 Then answered Esther the queen, and said, If I have found favour in thine eyes, O king, and if, unto the king, it seem good, let my life be granted me, as my petition, and my people, as my request;
Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request.
4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain and to be caused to perish. If indeed, for bondmen and for bondwomen, we had been sold, I had held my peace, although the adversary could not have made good the damage to the king.
For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”
5 Then spake King Ahasuerus, and said unto Esther the queen, —Who is he now, and where is he, whose heart is set to act thus?
Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?”
6 And Esther said, A man who is an adversary and enemy, this wicked Haman. And, Haman, was terrified, before the king and the queen.
Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.
7 Now, the king, arising in his wrath from the banquet of wine, and going into the palace garden, Haman, stood to make request for his life from Esther the queen, for he saw that ruin, was determined against him, by the king.
In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.
8 When, the king, returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, Haman, was lying prostrate upon the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he, even dare to force the queen, while I am in the house? No sooner had the word gone forth out of the mouth of the king, than, the face of Haman, they had covered.
Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually assault the queen while I am in the palace?” As soon as the words had left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
9 Then said Harbonah—one of the eunuchs before the king—Yea lo! the gallows that Haman made ready for Mordecai, who had spoken well for the king, is standing in Haman’s house, of a height of fifty cubits. Then said the king, Hang him thereon.
Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high at Haman’s house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.” “Hang him on it!” declared the king.
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, —and, the wrath of the king, was appeased.
So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.
