Haman Hanged Instead of Mordecai
1 So the king and Haman went to dine with Queen Esther.
2 And on the second day,at the banquet of wine, the king again said to Esther, “Whatisyour petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And whatisyour request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
3 Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.
4 For we have beensold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold asmale and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”
5 So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”
6 And Esther said, “The adversary andenemyisthis wicked Haman!”
So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.
7 Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wineandwentinto the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king.
8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen acrossthe couch where Estherwas.Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while Iamin the house?”
# As the word left the king’s mouth, theycovered Haman’s face.
9 NowHarbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look!The gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spokegood on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.”
Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”
10 Sotheyhanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.