Haman is Executed

1The king and Haman went in to have a drink with Queen Esther. 2On the second day the king again told Esther as they drank wine, “What’s your petition, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What’s your request? Up to half of the kingdom, and it will be done.”

3Queen Esther answered: “If I’ve found favor with you, your majesty, and if it seems good to the king, let my life be given to me as my petition and my people as my request. 4Indeed, I and my people have been sold to be annihilated, killed, and destroyed. If we had just been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because the trouble wouldn’t have been sufficient to bother the king.”a

5Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the person who would dareb do this?”

6Esther replied, “An adversary and an enemy—it’s this wicked Haman!” So Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. 7The king got up from the banquet in anger and went out to the palace garden, while Haman stood there begging Queen Esther to spare his life,c because he realized that the king intended to harm him.d

8When the king returned to the banquet hall from the palace garden, Haman was prostrate on the couch where Esther was. The king asked, “Will this mane even assault the queen with me in the house?” The king had no sooner spoken than they covered Haman’s face. 9Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, observed, “Look there! A pole is standing 50 cubitsf high at Haman’s house that he prepared for Mordecai, whose report benefittedg the king!”

The king said, “Hangh him on it.” 10So they hangedi Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and then the king’s anger subsided.