Esther 7

7 ¹ So the king and Haman came to drink with Queen Esther. ² And on the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It will be granted to you. And what is your request? Even to half the kingdom, it will be done."

³ Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have found favor in your eyes, king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and my people as my request." ⁴ For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept silent, for no such distress would be worth troubling the king."

⁵ Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he — the one with the audacity to do this?"

⁶ And Esther said, "A foe and an enemy — this wicked Haman!" Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

⁷ The king rose in his fury from the wine and went out into the palace garden, while Haman stayed to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he saw that the king had already determined his ruin. ⁸ When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself down on the couch where Esther was. The king exclaimed, "Will he even assault the queen while I am in the house?" The moment the words left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face. ^a a v8 Covering a condemned man's face was the ancient sign that his fate was sealed — he was as good as dead.

⁹ Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, "Look — the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke up for the king's good, is standing at Haman's house, about seventy-five feet tall." And the king said, "Hang him on it."

¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king's fury subsided.