Esther 7

Esther’s Banquet

7So the king and Haman went to dine^a with Queen Esther. ²And the king again said to Esther, on the second day while they were drinking,^b “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What is your request? It will be given to you—even half the kingdom.” ³Then Queen Esther answered, and she said, “If I have found favor in your eyes,^c O king, and if it is good to the king, let my life be given to me at my petition and my people at my request; ⁴I and my people have been sold to be destroyed and killed, to be annihilated. If we had been sold as male and female slaves I would have kept quiet, because this^d is not a need sufficient to trouble the king.”^{e 5}And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who gave himself the right to do this?”^{f 6}And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this evil Haman!” And Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

Haman is Hanged

⁷The king rose in his anger from the banquet^g and went to the palace garden, and Haman stood to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he realized that the king was determined to make an end to his life.^{h 8}And the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall,ⁱ where Haman was lying prostrate on the couch that Esther was on, and the king said, “Will he also molest the queen with me in the house?” As the words^j went from the king’s mouth they covered Haman’s face. ⁹And Habrona, one of the eunuchs in the presence of the king, said, “Look, the same gallows that Haman had prepared for Mordecai who spoke good for the sake of the king stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on it.” ¹⁰And they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the anger of the king was abated.