And while they were yet talking with him, came the king’s chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.

VII

So the king and Haman came to the banquet with Esther the queen.

And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, “What is thy petition, Queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee; and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.”

Then Esther the queen answered and said, “If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request, for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.  But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen only, I had held my tongue.”

Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”

And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.”  Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

And one of the chamberlains said before the king, “Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman.”

Then the king said, “Hang him thereon.”

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. 
Then was the king’s wrath pacified.

VIII

And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was unto her.  And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai.  And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief that Haman had devised against the Jews.

Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther.  So Esther arose and stood before the king, and said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king’s provinces; for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?”

[Illustration:  Then Haman was afraid]

Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen, and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews.

“Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring; for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may no man reverse.”