Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 So the king and Haman came to banquet with Ester the queen.
1
So the king and Haman went to dinner with Queen Esther.
2 The king said again to Ester on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is your petition, queen Ester? and it shall be granted you: and what is your request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.
2
At this second dinner, while they were drinking wine the king again asked, "Queen Esther, what would you like? Half of my kingdom! Just ask and it's yours."
3 Then Ester 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:
3
Queen Esther answered, "If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it please the king, give me my life, and give my people their lives.
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 shalom, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage.
4
"We've been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed - sold to be massacred, eliminated. If we had just been sold off into slavery, I wouldn't even have brought it up; our troubles wouldn't have been worth bothering the king over."
5 Then spoke the king Achashverosh and said to Ester the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that dared presume in his heart to do so?
5
King Xerxes exploded, "Who? Where is he? This is monstrous!"
6 Ester said, An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
6
"An enemy. An adversary. This evil Haman," said Esther. Haman was terror-stricken before the king and queen.
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 Ester the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.
7
The king, raging, left his wine and stalked out into the palace garden.
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 Ester 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.
8
As the king came back from the palace garden into the banquet hall, Haman was groveling at the couch on which Esther reclined. The king roared out, "Will he even molest the queen while I'm just around the corner?" When that word left the king's mouth, all the blood drained from Haman's face.
9 Then said Harvonah, one of the chamberlains who were before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordekhai, who spoke good for the king, stands in the house of Haman. The king said, Hang him thereon.
9
Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, spoke up: "Look over there! There's the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, who saved the king's life. It's right next to Haman's house - seventy-five feet high!" The king said, "Hang him on it!"
10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordekhai. Then was the king's wrath pacified.
10
So Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. And the king's hot anger cooled.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.