Esther Pleads for Her People

7 So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen, 2 and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more “Queen Esther, what [is] your petition? It will be given to you. What [is] your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”

3 Queen Esther replied “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king grant me my life as my petition, and [the lives of] my people as my request. 4 For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”

5 Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise[fn] such a scheme?”

6 Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.