Esther 7
Haman goes to Queen Esther’s feast
1King Xerxes and Haman went to the feast that Queen Esther had prepared. 2While they were drinking wine at this second feast, King Xerxes asked his question again. ‘Queen Esther’, he asked, ‘what do you want? Even if you want half the kingdom, I will give it to you.’ 3Queen Esther replied, ‘I hope that you are happy with me. And perhaps you want to give me what I ask. If you do, please let me live. And let my people live. That is what I want. 4Someone has sold me and my people so that we will die. If he had sold us as male and female slaves, I would not have caused trouble for the king.’ 5Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is he? Where is the man who would do this?’ 6Esther replied, ‘The man who wants to kill us is this very bad man Haman!’ Then Haman was very afraid. ▼▼7:6 Haman now knows that Queen Esther is a Jew. He knows that the king will be very angry. He will be very angry because of the law that Haman wrote.
7The king was very angry. He left his wine and he went into the palace garden. Haman knew that the king would kill him. So, he stayed with Queen Esther to ask her to save him. 8Just when the king returned, Haman threw himself down. He threw himself down on the bed that Queen Esther was lying on. He asked her to save him. The king shouted, ‘You even attack the queen when she is with me in the palace!’ When the king said this, servants covered Haman’s face with a piece of cloth. ▼▼7:8 That meant that Haman would die.
9Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs said, ‘There is a gallows outside Haman’s home. Haman’s men built it. He wanted to kill Mordecai on the gallows. Two officers wanted to kill the king. Mordecai is the man who told the king about it.’ The king said, ‘Hang Haman on the gallows until he is dead.’ 10So a servant hung Haman on the gallows until he was dead. It was the gallows that Haman’s servants had built for Mordecai. Then the king did not feel so angry.
Copyright information for
EE