Haman dies

7 King Xerxes and Haman went to the meal that Queen Esther had prepared. ² This was the second day that they ate a special meal together. While they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, ‘Queen Esther, what do you want me to do for you? I will give you whatever you want. Even if you want half of my kingdom, I will give it to you.’

³ Queen Esther replied, ‘Sir, I hope that you are pleased with me. If you agree, I ask you to save my life. Also save the lives of my people. That is what I ask you to do. ⁴ Someone has sold me and my people as if we are animals. Now they will kill us and completely destroy us all. If we had been sold to become slaves, I would not have spoken to the king. It would not have been important enough for that.’

⁵ Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is this man? Who would even think of anything like that? Where is he?’

⁶ Esther replied, ‘The enemy of our people is this wicked man Haman!’

Then Haman became very afraid, as he sat there with the king and the queen.^[a]

⁷ The king was very angry and he stood up. He left his wine and he went into the palace garden. Haman realized that the king wanted to destroy him. So he stayed with Queen Esther and he asked her to save his life. ⁸ Queen Esther was lying down on a bed. Haman threw himself down beside her. At that moment, the king returned from the garden. The king shouted, ‘What is this man doing? He even attacks the queen when she is with me in my palace!’^[b]

While the king was still saying this, his servants covered Haman's head.^[c]

⁹ One of the king's eunuchs, Harbona, said, ‘There is a wooden tower near Haman's home. It is 22 metres high. His men built it so that he could hang Mordecai on it. Mordecai is the man who saved the king's life.’

The king said, ‘Hang Haman on the tower until he is dead.’

¹⁰ So they took Haman and they hanged him on the tower until he was dead. It was the same tower that Haman had wanted to kill Mordecai on. After that, the king did not feel so angry.