Esther 11

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who said that he was a priest and a Levite, and Ptolemy his son brought to Egypt the preceding Letter of Purim, which they said was genuine and had been translated by Lysimachus the son of Ptolemy, one of the residents of Jerusalem.	1 And so the king and Haman entered to drink with the queen.
2 In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the Great, on the first day of Nisan, Mordecai the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, had a dream.	2 And the king said to her again on the second day, after he was warmed with wine, “What is your request, Esther, so that it may be given to you? And what do you want done? Even if you ask for half of my kingdom, you will obtain it.”
3 He was a Jew, dwelling in the city of Susa, a great man, serving in the court of the king.	3 She answered him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it pleases you, spare my soul, I ask you, and spare my people, I beg you.
4 He was one of the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had brought from Jerusalem with Jeconiah king of Judea. And this was his dream:	4 For I and my people have been handed over to be crushed, to be slain, and to perish. And if we were only being sold as servants and slaves, the evil might be tolerable, and I would have mourned in silence. But now our enemy is one whose cruelty overflows upon the king.”
5 Behold, noise and confusion, thunders and earthquake, tumult upon the earth!	5 And king Artaxerxes answered and said, “Who is this, and of what power, that he would dare to do these things?”
6 And behold, two great dragons came forward, both ready to fight, and they roared terribly.	6 And Esther said, “This is our most wicked enemy and foe: Haman!” Hearing this, Haman was suddenly dumbfounded, unable to bear the faces of the king and the queen.
7 And at their roaring every nation prepared for war, to fight against the nation of the righteous.	7 But the king, being angry, rose up and, from the place of the feast, entered into the arboretum of the garden. Haman likewise rose up to entreat Esther the queen for his soul, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king.
8 And behold, a day of darkness and gloom, tribulation and distress, affliction and great tumult upon the earth!	8 When the king returned from the arboretum of the garden and entered into the place of the feast, he found Haman collapsed on the couch on which Esther lay, and he said, “And now he wishes to oppress the queen, in my presence, in my house!” The word had not yet gone out of the king’s mouth, and immediately they covered his face.
9 And the whole righteous nation was troubled; they feared the evils that threatened them, and were ready to perish.	9 And Harbona, one of the eunuchs who stood in ministry to the king, said, “Behold the wood, which he had prepared for Mordecai, who spoke up on behalf of the king, stands in Haman’s house, having a height of fifty cubits.” The king said to him, “Hang him from it.”
10 Then they cried to God; and from their cry, as though from a tiny spring there came a great river, with abundant water;	10 And so Haman was hanged on the gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger was quieted.
11 light came, and the sun rose, and the lowly were exalted and consumed those held in honor.
12 Mordecai saw in his dream what God had determined to do, and after he awoke he had it on his mind and sought all day to understand it in every detail.