Esther Chapter 7

So the banquet proceeds (Esther 7), and the king and Haman are found, for there was no time to lose. The chamberlain had come and summoned Haman to the banquet, and now the king, for the third time, demands from the queen her petition. "What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee; and what is thy request? and it shall be performed even to the half of the kingdom. Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition." What! was it come to this? the queen to be a beggar for her life! "Let my life be given me at my petition and my people at my request; for we are sold, I and my people to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish: but if we had been sold for bond-men and bond-women, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage." She had struck the right chord. Not only all the affections of the king burst out at this insult that was done to the one that he loved above all in the kingdom; but more: there was the audacious presumption that should attempt the destruction of the queen and all the queen's people - of all her people without even the king's knowledge. Who could be the traitor?

"Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman." "Then Haman was afraid" - as well he might be - "before the king and the queen. And the king arising from his banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden." Well did Haman know that it was sentence of death that was pronounced upon him. "And Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king." And when the king returns he finds Haman in his agony fallen upon the bed where Esther was, and the king willingly puts the worst construction upon it. The word goes forth from his mouth and they cover Haman's face for immediate execution. And Harbonah one of the chamberlains suggested to the king the gallows that was already made in Haman's own premises, and this also meets the king's wishes. "Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified."