Old Testament

Esther 7
71So the king and Haman went to the feast with Queen Esther.
2On the second day, when they were again drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What are you seeking? Up to half of the kingdom—it's yours.”
3Queen Esther responded, “My King, if I have found favor in your eyes, and if it pleases the king, I am asking that my life be spared, and I am seeking the lives of my people, 4because I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we were merely being sold to be male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, because that would not have been bad enough to be a reason to bother the king.”
5King Xerxes spoke up. He said to Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is this person who has the audacity to do this?”
6Esther said, “This hateful enemy is this evil Haman!” Haman was terrified in the presence of the king and the queen.
7The king rose angrily from the place where they were drinking wine[] and went to the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, because he saw the king was determined to do something bad to him.
8Just as the king was returning from the palace garden to the hall where they had been drinking wine, Haman was falling onto the couch on which Esther was lying. The king said, “Will he even assault the queen when I am in the building?” As soon as the words left the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.[]
9In addition, Harbona, one of the eunuchs present with the king, said, “You know, there is a gallows seventy-five feet high standing by the house of Haman, which he made for Mordecai, the person who spoke up for the benefit of the king.” The king said, “Hang[] him on it.”
10So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king's anger subsided.

Footnotes

  • 7:7 The word mishteh, which is often translated banquet, refers primarily to drinking rather than eating. Here that connotation is made explicit by the addition of the word wine.
  • 7:8 Apparently, to mark him as a condemned man
  • 7:9 Or impale