Esther 7 – 8

Esther 7

¹ So the king and Haman went to the feast with Queen Esther.

² On 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.”

³ Queen 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, ⁴ because 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.”

⁵ King Xerxes spoke up. He said to Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is this person who has the audacity to do this?”

⁶ Esther said, “This hateful enemy is this evil Haman!” Haman was terrified in the presence of the king and the queen.

⁷ The king rose angrily from the place where they were drinking wine ^[1] and went to the palace garden. But Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, because he saw the king had evil plans for him.

⁸ Just 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. ^[2]

⁹ In 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 ^[3] him on it.”

¹⁰ So they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger subsided.

Esther 8

¹ That day King Xerxes gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Mordecai came and appeared before the king, because Esther had told him what Mordecai’s relationship to her was.

² The king took off his signet ring that he had taken from Haman and gave it to Mordecai. Esther put Mordecai in charge of the house of Haman.

³ In addition, Esther spoke to the king. She fell at his feet, wept, and requested that he put an end to the evil plan that Haman the Agagite had devised against the Jews.

⁴ The king held out the golden scepter to Esther. Esther rose and stood in the presence of the king.

⁵ She said, “If it is acceptable to the king, if I have found favor before him, if this idea seems right to the king, and if I am acceptable to him, a decree should be written to nullify the letters for the plot of Haman, son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews in all of the provinces of the king. ⁶ For how can I watch the disaster that is about to come on my people! How can I watch the destruction of my relatives!”

⁷ King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look. I have given Haman’s house to Esther. They have hanged him on the gallows because he raised his hand against the Jews. ⁸ You can write concerning the Jews whatever seems good to you and seal it with the king’s signet ring, because a document written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring cannot be changed.”

⁹ The king’s scribes were summoned at once, on the twenty-third day of Sivan, the third month. Whatever Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews was written to the satraps, governors, and the officials of the provinces from India to Cush, one hundred twenty-seven provinces in all. They wrote to each province in its own writing system and to each people in its own language (including to the Jews in their writing system and in their language). ¹⁰ He wrote in the name of King Xerxes and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. He sent letters by messengers mounted on the king’s fastest thoroughbreds. ^[4]

The Content and Effect of the Letters

¹¹ The king gave the Jews in every city the right to gather together to defend their own lives and to destroy, kill, and annihilate any military force of any people or province that might attack them, along with their children and their wives, and to plunder their goods.

¹² In all the provinces of King Xerxes, ¹³ a copy of the writing, which was issued as a law for every province, proclaimed to all the peoples that on one day (the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar), the Jews would be ready to avenge themselves on their enemies.

¹⁴ The couriers riding their swift horses went out quickly, spurred on by the word of the king. The decree originated in Susa, the citadel.

¹⁵ Mordecai went out from the king’s presence, dressed in blue and white royal clothing, with a large gold crown and a purple linen cape. The city of Susa shouted and rejoiced. ¹⁶ It was a time of light, gladness, joy, and honor for the Jews.

¹⁷ In every province and in every city which the message of the king reached, his edict brought gladness and joy to the Jews. There was a feast and a holiday. Many of the peoples of the land declared themselves Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.