Esther 7

NEW JERUSALEM	Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
1 The king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet,	1 So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.
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 on the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled."
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 Queen Esther 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 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 sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to 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 Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, that would presume to do this?"
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, "A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!" Then Haman was in terror before the king and 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 And the king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that evil was determined against 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 the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was; and the king said, "Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?" As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's 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 Then said Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, "Moreover, the gallows which Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing in Haman's house, fifty cubits high."
10 So Haman was hanged on the gal ows which he had erected for Mordecai, and the king's wrathsubsided.	10 And the king said, "Hang him on that." So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.