Esther 7

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 The king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet,	1 So the king and Aman went in, to drink with the queen.
2 and this second day, during the banquet, the king again said to Esther, 'Tel me your request, QueenEsther. I grant it to you. Whatever you want; even if it is half my kingdom, it is yours for the asking.'	2 And the king said to her again the second day, after he was warm with wine: What is thy petition, Esther, that it may be granted thee? and what wilt thou have done: although thou ask the half of my kingdom, thou shalt have it.
3 'If I have found favour in your eyes, O king,' Queen Esther replied, 'and if it please your majesty, grantme my life -- that is my request; and the lives of my people -- that is what I want.	3 Then she answered: If I have found Favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please thee, give me my life for which I ask, and my people for which I request.
4 For we have been handed over, my people and I, to destruction, slaughter and annihilation; had wemerely been sold as slaves and servant-girls, I should not have said anything; but in the present case, it wil bebeyond the persecutor's means to make good the loss that the king is about to sustain.'	4 For we are given up, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. And would God we were sold for bondmen and bondwomen: the evil might be borne with, and I would have mourned in silence: but now we have an enemy, whose cruelty redoundeth upon the king.
5 King Ahasuerus interrupted Queen Esther, 'Who is this man?' he exclaimed. 'Where is the man who hasthought of doing such a thing?'	5 And king Assuerus answered and said: Who is this, and of what power, that he should do these things?
6 Esther replied, 'The persecutor, the enemy? Why, this wretch Haman!' Haman quaked with terror in thepresence of the king and queen.	6 And Esther said: It is this Aman that is our adversary and most wicked enemy. Aman hearing this was forthwith astonished, not being able to bear the countenance of the king and of the queen.
7 In a rage the king got up from the banquet and went into the palace garden; while Haman, realising thatthe king was determined on his ruin, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.	7 But the king being angry rose up, and went from the place of the banquet into the garden set with trees. Aman also rose up to entreat Esther the queen for his life, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king.
8 When the king came back from the palace garden into the banqueting hal , he found Haman sprawledacross the couch where Esther was reclining. 'What!' the king exclaimed. 'Is he going to rape the queen in myown palace?' The words were scarcely out of his mouth than a veil was thrown over Haman's face.	8 And when the king came back out of the garden set with trees, and entered into the place of the banquet, he found Aman was fallen upon the bed on which Esther lay, and he said: He will force the queen also in my presence, in my own house. The word was not yet gone out of the king's mouth, and immediately they covered his face.
9 In the royal presence, Harbona, one of the officers, said, 'There is that fifty-cubit gal ows, too, whichHaman ran up for Mordecai, who spoke up to the king's great advantage. It is al ready at his house.' 'Hang himon it,' said the king.	9 And Harbona, one of the eunuchs that stood waiting on the king, said: Behold the gibbet which he hath prepared for Mardochai, who spoke for the king, standeth in Aman's house, being fifty cubits high. And the king said to him: Hang him upon it.
10 So Haman was hanged on the gal ows which he had erected for Mordecai, and the king's wrathsubsided.	10 So Aman was hanged on the gibbet, which he had prepared for Mardochai: and the king's wrath ceased.