Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 162
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IMMERSE
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CHRONICLES
4:15–5:14
Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and gather together all
the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night
or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the
law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” So Mordecai went
away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and entered
the inner court of the palace, just across from the king’s hall. The king
was sitting on his royal throne, facing the entrance. When he saw Queen
Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her and held out
the gold scepter to her. So Esther approached and touched the end of
the scepter.
Then the king asked her, “What do you want, Queen Esther? What is
your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom!”
And Esther replied, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come
today to a banquet I have prepared for the king.”
The king turned to his attendants and said, “Tell Haman to come
quickly to a banquet, as Esther has requested.” So the king and Haman
went to Esther’s banquet.
And while they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “Now tell
me what you really want. What is your request? I will give it to you, even
if it is half the kingdom!”
Esther replied, “This is my request and deepest wish. If I have found
favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request and do
what I ask, please come with Haman tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for you. Then I will explain what this is all about.”
Haman was a happy man as he left the banquet! But when he saw Mor
decai sitting at the palace gate, not standing up or trembling nervously
before him, Haman became furious. However, he restrained himself and
went on home.
Then Haman gathered together his friends and Zeresh, his wife, and
boasted to them about his great wealth and his many children. He bragged
about the honors the king had given him and how he had been promoted
over all the other nobles and officials.
Then Haman added, “And that’s not all! Queen Esther invited only me
and the king himself to the banquet she prepared for us. And she has invited me to dine with her and the king again tomorrow!” Then he added,
“But this is all worth nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew just sitting
there at the palace gate.”
So Haman’s wife, Zeresh, and all his friends suggested, “Set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall, and in the morning ask the king
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