Esther 7
New English Translation
The King Has Haman Executed
7 So the king and Haman came to dine[a] with Queen Esther. 2 On the second day of the banquet of wine the king asked Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your petition? Ask for up to half the kingdom, and it shall be done.”
3 Queen Esther replied, “If I have met with your approval,[b] O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition. 4 For we have been sold[c]—both I and my people—to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation. If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”
5 Then King Ahasuerus responded[d] to Queen Esther, “Who is this individual? Where is this person to be found who is presumptuous enough[e] to act in this way?”
6 Esther replied, “The oppressor and enemy is this evil Haman!”
Then Haman became terrified in the presence of the king and queen. 7 In rage the king arose from the banquet of wine and withdrew to the palace garden. Meanwhile, Haman stood to beg Queen Esther for his life,[f] for he realized that the king had now determined a catastrophic end for him.[g]
8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet of wine, Haman was throwing himself down[h] on the couch where Esther was lying.[i] The king exclaimed, “Will he also attempt to rape the queen while I am still in the building?”
As these words left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face. 9 Harbona,[j] one of the king’s eunuchs, said, “Indeed, there is the gallows that Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke out on the king’s behalf. It stands near Haman’s home and is 75 feet[k] high.”
The king said, “Hang him on it!” 10 So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.
Footnotes
- Esther 7:1 tn Heb “to drink”; NASB “to drink wine.” The expression is a metaphor for lavish feasting, cf. NRSV “to feast”; KJV “to banquet.”
- Esther 7:3 tn Heb “If I have found grace in your eyes” (so also in 8:5); TEV “If it please Your Majesty.”
- Esther 7:4 sn The passive verb (“have been sold”) is noncommittal and nonaccusatory with regard to the king’s role in the decision to annihilate the Jews.
- Esther 7:5 tc The second occurrence of the Hebrew verb וַיּאמֶר (vayyoʾmer, “and he said”) in the MT should probably be disregarded. The repetition is unnecessary in the context and may be the result of dittography in the MT.
- Esther 7:5 tn Heb “has so filled his heart”; NAB “who has dared to do this.”
- Esther 7:7 sn There is great irony here in that the man who set out to destroy all the Jews now finds himself begging for his own life from a Jew.
- Esther 7:7 tn Heb “for he saw that calamity was determined for him from the king”; NAB “the king had decided on his doom”; NRSV “the king had determined to destroy him.”
- Esther 7:8 tn Heb “falling”; NAB, NRSV “had (+ just TEV) thrown himself (+ down TEV).”
- Esther 7:8 tn Heb “where Esther was” (so KJV, NASB). The term “lying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “was reclining.”
- Esther 7:9 sn Cf. 1:10, where Harbona is one of the seven eunuchs sent by the king to summon Queen Vashti to his banquet.
- Esther 7:9 tn Heb “50 cubits.” See the note on this expression in Esth 5:14.
以斯帖記 7
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional)
哈曼被處死
7 王帶著哈曼去赴以斯帖王后的宴席。 2 在這第二次宴會中，王在席間又問以斯帖：「以斯帖王后啊，你要什麼？我必賜給你。你有何要求？就是半壁江山，也必為你成就。」 3 以斯帖回答說：「我若得到王的恩寵，王若願意，就請王把我的性命和我本族人的性命賜給我——這是我所求的。 4 因為我和我本族的人都被賣了，我們將被剷除、殺光、滅盡。如果只是賣我們為奴為婢，我會閉口不語，因為那樣的痛苦不值得來打擾王[a]。」 5 亞哈隨魯王問以斯帖王后：「誰敢這樣做？他在哪裡？」 6 以斯帖回答說：「敵人和仇家就是這惡人哈曼！」哈曼在王和王后面前十分驚恐。
7 王大怒，離席去了御花園。哈曼見王定意要懲罰他，便留下來求以斯帖王后饒命。 8 王從御花園回到席上，見哈曼伏在以斯帖所靠的榻上，便說：「他竟敢在宮中當著我的面侮辱王后嗎？」王這話一出口，便有人蒙了哈曼的臉。 9 服侍王的太監哈波拿說：「哈曼為那救駕有功的末底改做了一個二十三米高的木架，如今正立在哈曼家裡。」王說：「把哈曼吊在上面！」 10 於是，哈曼被吊在他為末底改預備的木架上，王的怒氣這才平息。
Footnotes
- 7·4 「因為那樣的痛苦不值得來打擾王」或譯「但王的損失，敵人無法補償」。
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