Esther

him across the town square, crying out before him as they went, “This is what is done for the man the king wishes to honor!” 12, And then Mordekhai returned to the King’s Gate, and Haman bolted back to 13 his house, grief-stricken, covering his face. Haman told his wife, Zeresh, and all his friends, all that had happened to him, and his wise men, with his wife, Zeresh, said to him, “If this Mordekhai you have begun to fall before is of Jewish blood, you will not overcome him; you will fall, must fall before him -" 14 But they were still speaking when the king’s eunuchs arrived, to fetch Haman, with terrible haste, to the feast that Esther had prepared. 73 So the king and Haman arrived to drink with Queen Esther. And on that second day also, at the drinking feast, the king said to Esther, “What is your desire, Esther my queen? It shall be yours. And what would you ask? Be it even half my kingdom, it shall be done.” 3 And Queen Esther answered: “IfI have your favor, my king,’ she said, “and if so it please your majesty — let me have my life at my desire; my people at my 4 request. For we have been sold - I and my people - to be wiped out, killed and destroyed. Had we but been sold away as slaves and bondwomen, I would have kept my silence; for that anguish is not worth any loss to the king.” s And King Ahasuerus spoke: he said to Esther the queen, “Who is this and where is he, who has put it into his heart to do such a thing?” 6 “It is a foe, an enemy,’ said Esther, “this vicious man, Haman!” And Haman 7 was suddenly terrified before the king and queen. The king rose up in his fury and left the wine feast for the palace garden, as Haman stood up to entreat for his life with Esther the queen, for he saw that the king was already 8 set upon his downfall. By the time the king came back from the palace garden to the feasting chamber, Haman had thrown himself onto Esther’s couch - “What!” said the king, “Would you take the queen too, and with me in the palace?” And the servants stepped forward to cover Haman’s face. 9 And one of the eunuchs, Harvona, said to the king, “You know, the post Haman prepared for Mordekhai, who spoke up well for the king, is stand- ing now in Haman’s house, fifty cubits high...” And the king said, “Hang him upon it!” 10 Thus was Haman hung up, on the very post he had prepared for Mordekhai; and the king’s fury subsided. 81 On that day, King Ahasuerus granted Queen Esther the estate of Haman, enemy of the Jews; and Mordekhai came before the king, for Esther had