Esther

So the king and Haman came to feast with Queen Esther.

On the second day, the king again asked Esther at the wine feast, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half the kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”

Queen Esther replied: “If Your Majesty will do me the favor, and if it pleases Your Majesty, let my life be granted me as my wish, and my people as my request.

For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, massacred, and exterminated. Had we only been sold as bondmen and bondwomen, I would have kept silent; for the adversaryathe adversary Emendation yields “a trifle” (ḥiṣṣar), lit. “little finger.” is not worthy of the king’s trouble.”

Thereupon King Ahasuerus demanded of Queen Esther, “Who is he and where is he who dared to do this?”

“The adversary and enemy,” replied Esther, “is this evil Haman!” And Haman cringed in terror before the king and the queen.

The king, in his fury, left the wine feast for the palace garden, while Haman remained to plead with Queen Esther for his life; for he saw that the king had resolved to destroy him.

When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet room, Haman was lying prostrate on the couch on which Esther reclined. “Is he attempting,” cried the king, “a conquest of the queen in my own palace?” No sooner did these words leave the king’s lips than Haman’s face was covered.bwas covered Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “blanched”; cf. Ps. 34.6.

Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “What is more, a stake is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai—the man whose words saved the king.” “Impale him on it!” the king ordered.

So they impaled Haman on the stake that he had put up for Mordecai, and the king’s fury abated.