Esther 7

Chapter 7

Esther’s Plea

¹Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen.

²And the king said to Esther on the second day also ¹as they drank their wine at the banquet, “^aWhat is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? ^bEven to half of the kingdom it shall be done.”

³Then Queen Esther replied, “^aIf I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request;

⁴for ^awe have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, ^bto be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the ¹trouble would not be commensurate with the ²annoyance to the king.”

⁵Then King Ahasuerus ¹asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, ²who would presume to do thus?”

⁶Esther said, “^aA foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.

Haman Is Hanged

⁷The king arose ^ain his anger from ¹drinking wine and went into ^bthe palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.

⁸Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the ¹place where they were drinking wine, Haman was falling on ^athe couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

⁹Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were before the king said, “Behold indeed, ^athe gallows standing at Haman’s house fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai ^bwho spoke good on behalf of the king!” And the king said, “Hang him on it.”

^10aSo they hanged Haman on the ¹gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, ^band the king’s anger subsided.