Esther 7
1 So the king and Haman went to eat the second banquet/feast that Queen Esther had prepared.
So the king and Haman came in, to banquet with Esther the queen.
2 As they were drinking wine, the king asked again, “Esther, what do you want me to do [for you? Tell me, and] I will do it for you. Even if [you ask me for] half of my kingdom, I will give it to you.”
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?
3 Esther replied, “O king, if you are pleased with me, and if you are willing to do [what I ask], save me, and save my people. That is what I want you to do for me.
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;
4 [It is as though] I and my people [are cattle that] have been sold to be slaughtered. [It is as though] we have been sold to people who want to completely destroy us. If we had only been sold to people to become their male and female slaves, I would not say anything, because that would have been a matter too small to bother you, the king.”
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.
5 Then King Xerxes asked her, “Who would want to do such a [terrible] thing? Where is he?”
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?
6 Esther replied, “[The man who is] our enemy is this evil man Haman!” Then Haman was terrified as he stood in front of the king and queen.
And Esther said, A man who is an adversary and enemy, this wicked Haman. And, Haman, was terrified, before the king and the queen.
7 The king became extremely angry. He immediately left his wine and got up and went outside into the palace garden [to decide what to do]. But Haman stayed, in order to plead with Queen Esther that she would spare his life.
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.
8 He threw himself down on the couch where Esther was reclining. But at that moment the king returned from the garden to the room where they had been eating. [He saw Haman, and assumed he was preparing to rape Esther]. He exclaimed, “Are you going to rape the queen while she is here with me in my own palace?” As soon as the king said that, some officials covered Haman’s head, [as they did to people who were about to be hanged].
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.
9 Then Harbona, one of the king’s personal officials, said, “[Outside, ] near Haman’s house, there is a (gallows/set of poles for hanging someone). It is 75 feet high. Haman made it for Mordecai, the man who spared your life!” The king said, “Hang him on it!”
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.
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for hanging Mordecai! And then (the king’s anger cooled off/the king was no longer so angry).
So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, —and, the wrath of the king, was appeased.
