Esther 7

1So the king and Haman came to drink with Queen Esther.

2On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It will be granted to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be done.”

3Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life—this is my wish—and the lives of my people—this is my request.

4For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. If we had only been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent, for such distress would not have been worth troubling the king.”

5Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, the man who has dared to do this?”

6Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy—this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

7The king got up in his rage from the wine banquet and went out into the palace garden, but Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he saw that the king had decided to bring disaster on him.

8When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king said, “Will he even assault the queen while I am in the house?” As soon as the words left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

9Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “Look, there is also the pole that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke up to save the king. It is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” The king said, “Hang him on it!”

10So they hanged Haman on the pole he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s rage died down.