The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 So the king and Haman came to take wine with Esther the queen.
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And so the king and Haman went to eat with Esther
2 And the king said to Esther again on the second day, while they were drinking, What is your prayer, Queen Esther? for it will be given to you; and what is your request? for it will be done, even to the half of my kingdom.
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for a second time. Over the wine the king asked her again, "Now, Queen Esther, what do you want? Tell me and you shall have it. I'll even give you half the empire."
3 Then Esther the queen, answering, said, If I have your approval, O king, and if it is the king's pleasure, let my life be given to me in answer to my prayer, and my people at my request:
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Queen Esther answered, "If it please Your Majesty to grant my humble request, my wish is that I may live and that my people may live.
4 For we are given up, I and my people, to destruction and death and to be cut off. If we had been taken as men-servants and women-servants for a price, I would have said nothing, for our trouble is little in comparison with the king's loss.
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My people and I have been sold for slaughter. If it were nothing more serious than being sold into slavery, I would have kept quiet and not bothered you about it; but we are about to be destroyed - exterminated!"
5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, Who is he and where is he who has had this evil thought in his heart?
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Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, "Who dares to do such a thing? Where is this man?"
6 And Esther said, Our hater and attacker is this evil Haman. Then Haman was full of fear before the king and the queen.
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Esther answered, "Our enemy, our persecutor, is this evil man Haman!" Haman faced the king and queen with terror.
7 And the king in his wrath got up from the feast and went into the garden: and Haman got to his feet to make a prayer for his life to Esther the queen: for he saw that the king's purpose was evil against him.
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The king got up in a fury, left the room, and went outside to the palace gardens. Haman could see that the king was determined to punish him for this, so he stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.
8 Then the king came back from the garden into the room where they had been drinking; and Haman was stretched out on the seat where Esther was. Then the king said, Is he taking the queen by force before my eyes in my house? And while the words were on the king's lips, they put a cloth over Haman's face.
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He had just thrown himself down on Esther's couch to beg for mercy, when the king came back into the room from the gardens. Seeing this, the king cried out, "Is this man going to rape the queen right here in front of me, in my own palace?" The king had no sooner said this than the eunuchs covered Haman's head.
9 Then Harbonah, one of the unsexed servants waiting before the king, said, See, the pillar fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who said a good word for the king, is still in its place in Haman's house. Then the king said, Put him to death by hanging him on it.
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Then one of them, who was named Harbonah, said, "Haman even went so far as to build a gallows at his house so that he could hang Mordecai, who saved Your Majesty's life. And it's seventy-five feet tall!" "Hang Haman on it!" the king commanded.
10 So Haman was put to death by hanging him on the pillar he had made for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath became less.
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So Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then the king's anger cooled down.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.