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1 The king and Haman went to Queen Esther's dinner. 2 At this second dinner, as they were drinking wine, the king asked Esther again, “What are you really asking for, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What do you want? You shall have it, as much as half my empire!”
3 Queen Esther answered, “If the king looks on me favorably, and if it please Your Majesty to grant me my life, that is my request; and the lives of my people, that is what I ask. 4 For my people and I have been sold*“Sold”: or, “handed over.” to be destroyed, killed, and annihilated. If we had only been sold as slaves, I would have kept quiet, because our suffering would not have justified disturbing the king.”†Or “although our suffering could not have compensated for what the king lost.”
5 The king asked Queen Esther, demanding to know, “Who is this? Where is the man who has dared to do this?”
6 “The man, the opponent, the enemy, is this evil Haman!” Esther replied. Haman shook with terror in front of the king and the queen.
7 The king was furious. He got up, leaving his wine, and went out into the palace garden. Haman stayed behind to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he realized the king planned an evil‡The same word is used here as Esther uses to describe Haman in verse 6. end for him. 8 When the king came back in from the palace garden to the dining room, Haman had thrown himself§“Thrown himself”: literally, “had fallen,” but this was not an accidental fall but a deliberate attempt to ask for mercy. However, this only compounded his guilt in the king's eyes. on the couch where Queen Esther was.
The king shouted out, “Is he even going to rape the queen here in the palace, right in front of me?” As soon as the king said this, the servants covered Haman's face.
9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “Haman set up a pole beside his house for Mordecai, the one whose report saved the king's life. The pole is fifty cubits high.”
“Impale him on it!” the king ordered.
10 So they impaled Haman on the pole that he had set up for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king died down.

- Esther
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*7:4 “Sold”: or, “handed over.”

†7:4 Or “although our suffering could not have compensated for what the king lost.”

‡7:7 The same word is used here as Esther uses to describe Haman in verse 6.

§7:8 “Thrown himself”: literally, “had fallen,” but this was not an accidental fall but a deliberate attempt to ask for mercy. However, this only compounded his guilt in the king's eyes.

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher