Inspire Catholic Bible - Esther - Flipbook - Page 12
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Esther 7:5
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as slaves, I could remain quiet, for that would be too trivial a matter to
warrant disturbing the king.”
5 “Who would do such a thing?” King Xerxes demanded. “Who would
be so presumptuous as to touch you?”
6 Esther replied, “This wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy.”
Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen. 7 Then the king
jumped to his feet in a rage and went out into the palace garden.
Haman, however, stayed behind to plead for his life with Queen Es
ther, for he knew that the king intended to kill him. 8 In despair he fell
on the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king was
returning from the palace garden.
The king exclaimed, “Will he even assault the queen right here in the
palace, before my very eyes?” And as soon as the king spoke, his atten
dants covered Haman’s face, signaling his doom.
9 Then Harbona, one of the king’s e
unuchs, said, “Haman has set up a
sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet* tall in his own courtyard.
He intended to use it to impale Mordecai, the man who saved the king
from assassination.”
“Then impale Haman on it!” the king ordered. 10 So they impaled
Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and the king’s anger
subsided.
A Decree to Help the Jews
On that same day King Xerxes gave the property of Haman, the
enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther. Then Mordecai was brought
before the king, for Esther had told the king how they were related. 2 The
king took off his signet ring—which he had taken back from Haman—
and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge
of Haman’s property.
3 Then Esther went again before the king, falling down at his feet and
begging him with tears to stop the evil plot devised by Haman the Agag
ite against the J ews. 4 Again the king held out the gold scepter to Esther.
So she rose and stood before him.
5 Esther said, “If it please the king, and if I have found favor with him,
and if he thinks it is right, and if I am pleasing to him, let there be a
decree that reverses the orders of Haman son of Hammedatha the Ag
agite, who ordered that Jews throughout all the king’s provinces should
be destroyed. 6 For how can I endure to see my people and my family
slaughtered and destroyed?”
7 Then King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “I
have given Esther the property of Haman, and he has been impaled on
a pole because he tried to destroy the J ews. 8 Now go ahead and send a
message to the Jews in the king’s name, telling them whatever you want,
and seal it with the king’s signet ring. But remember that whatever has
already been written in the king’s name and sealed with his signet ring
can never be revoked.”
9 So on June 25* the king’s secretaries were summoned, and a de
cree was written exactly as Mordecai dictated. It was sent to the J ews
and to the highest officers, the governors, and the nobles of all the
127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.* The decree was
written in the scripts and languages of all the peoples of the empire,
including that of the Jews. 10 The decree was written in the name of
King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring. Mordecai sent the
8
7:9 Hebrew 50 cubits [23 meters]. 8:9a Hebrew on the twenty-third day of the third month, the
month of Sivan, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was June 25, 474 b.c.; also see note
on 2:16. 8:9b Hebrew to Cush.
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