Esther 7
Esther Pleads for Her People
2and as they drank their wine on that 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.”
2And the king said to Esther also on the second day at the feast of the wine, “What is your petition, Esther the queen? And it shall be given to you. And what is your request? As much as half of the kingdom, and it shall be done.”
3Queen 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.
3And Esther the queen answered and said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if upon the king it is good, let my soul be given to me at my petition, and my people at my request;
4For 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 remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”
4for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be exterminated. And if for menservants and for maidservants we had been sold, I would have kept silent, for the adversary is not equal in the damage of the king.”
The Hanging of Haman
7In 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 that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.
7And the king arose in his anger from the feast of the wine to the garden of the palace, and Haman stood to beg for his soul from Esther the queen, for he saw that the evil was determined against him from the king.
8Just 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.
8And the king returned from the garden of the palace to the house of the feast of the wine, and Haman was falling upon the couch that Esther was on. And the king said, “Is it also to subdue the queen with me in the house?” The word went forth from the mouth of the king, and they covered the face of Haman.
9Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits higha 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.
9And Harbonah, one from the eunuchs, said before the face of the king, “Also behold, the tree that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good over the king, is standing at the house of Haman, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on it.”