Esther 7
1 So the king and Haman came in, to banquet with Esther the queen.
And so the king and Haman entered to drink with 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 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 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;
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 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 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 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?
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, A man who is an adversary and enemy, this wicked Haman. And, Haman, was terrified, 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 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, —and, the wrath of the king, was appeased.
And so Haman was hanged on the gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger was quieted.
