1 And so the king and Haman went to eat with Esther 2 for a second time. Over the wine the king asked her again, “Now, Queen Esther, what do you want? Tell me and you shall have it. I'll even give you half the empire.”
3 Queen Esther answered, “If it please Your Majesty to grant my humble request, my wish is that I may live and that my people may live. 4 My people and I have been sold into slavery; our possessions have been plundered, and now we are to be destroyed—all of us, including our children, will be slaves—and so far I have kept quiet. It isn't right that our enemy should be a member of the royal court.”
5 Then King Xerxes asked Esther, “Who dares to do such a thing?”
6 Esther answered, “Our enemy is this evil man Haman!”
In terror Haman faced the king and queen. 7 The king got up from the table and went outside to the palace gardens. Haman could see that he was in a dangerous situation, so he stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life. 8 He had just thrown himself down on Esther's couch to beg for mercy, when the king came back into the room from the gardens. Seeing this, the king cried out, “Are you going to rape my wife here in my own palace?”
When Haman heard this, he turned away in despair. 9 Then one of the eunuchs, whose name was Bougathan, said, “Haman has even gone so far as to build a gallows at his house so that he can hang Mordecai, who warned Your Majesty about the plot. And it's seventy-five feet high!”
“Hang Haman on it!” the king commanded.
10 So Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then the king's anger cooled down.
© Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.