Esther 7

Haman Hanged Instead of Mordecai

7So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther. ²And on the second day, ^aat the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”

³Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. ⁴For we have been ^bsold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as ^cmale and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”

⁵So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”

⁶And Esther said, “The adversary and ^denemy is this wicked Haman!”

So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

⁷Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. ⁸When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across ^ethe couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?”

As the word left the king’s mouth, they ^fcovered Haman’s face. ⁹Now ^gHarbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! ^hThe ¹gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke ⁱgood on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.”

Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”

¹⁰So ^jthey ^khanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.