Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 And so the king and Haman went to eat with Esther
1
So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.
2 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."
2
The king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is your petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted you: and what is your request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.
3 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.
3
Then Esther the queen answered, If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
4 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!"
4
for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondservants and bondmaids, I had held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage.
5 Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, "Who dares to do such a thing? Where is this man?"
5
Then spoke the king Ahasuerus and said to Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that dared presume in his heart to do so?
6 Esther answered, "Our enemy, our persecutor, is this evil man Haman!" Haman faced the king and queen with terror.
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Esther said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
7 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.
7
The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine [and went] into the palace garden: 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.
8 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.
8
Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman was fallen on the couch whereon Esther was. Then said the king, Will he even force the queen before me in the house? As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.
9 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.
9
Then said Harbonah, one of the chamberlains who were before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, stands in the house of Haman. The king said, Hang him thereon.
10 So Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then the king's anger cooled down.
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So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.