CHAPTER 7
and as they drank
their wine
on the second
day,
the king
asked
once more,
“Queen
Esther,
what is
your petition?
It will be given
to you.
What is
your request?
Even up to
half
the kingdom,
it will be fulfilled.”
Then Queen
Esther
replied,
“If
I have found
favor
in your sight,
O king,
and if
it pleases
the king,
grant
me
my life
as my petition,
and the lives of my people
as my request.
For
my people
and I
have been sold out
to destruction,
death,
and annihilation.
If
we had merely been sold
as menservants
and maidservants,
I would have held my peace,
because
no
such distress
would justify
burdening
the king.”
Then King
Xerxes
spoke up
and asked
Queen
Esther,
“Who
is this,
and where
is the one
who
would
devise
such a scheme?”
Esther
replied,
“The adversary
and enemy
is this
wicked man—
Haman!”
And Haman
stood in terror
before
the king
and queen.
In his fury,
the king
arose
from drinking
his wine
and went to
the palace
garden,
while Haman
stayed behind
to beg
Queen
Esther
for
his life,
for
he realized
the king
was planning
a terrible fate
for him.
Just as the king
returned
from the palace
garden
to
the banquet hall,
Haman
was falling
on
the couch
where
Esther
was reclining.
The king
exclaimed,
“Would he actually
assault
the queen
while
I am in the palace?”
As soon as the words
had left
the king's
mouth,
they covered
Haman's
face.
Then Harbonah,
one
of
the eunuchs
attending
the king,
said:
“There
is a gallows
fifty
cubits
high
at Haman's
house.
He
had it built
for Mordecai,
who
gave the report
that saved
the king."
“Hang
him on it!"
declared
the king.
So they hanged
Haman
on
the gallows
he had prepared
for Mordecai.
Then the fury
of the king
subsided.