Haman Is Executed

7 The king and Haman came to feast^[a](A) with Esther the queen. ² Once again, on the second day while drinking wine,^(B) the king asked Esther, “Queen Esther, whatever you ask will be given to you. Whatever you seek, even to half the kingdom, will be done.”^(C)

³ Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if the king is pleased,^(D) spare my life; this is my request. And spare my people; this is my desire.^{(E) 4} For my people and I have been sold^(F) to destruction, death, and annihilation.^(G) If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves,^(H) I would have kept silent. Indeed, the trouble wouldn’t be worth burdening the king.”

⁵ King Ahasuerus spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?” ^[b](I)

⁶ Esther answered, “The adversary and enemy^(J) is this evil Haman.”

Haman stood terrified^(K) before the king and queen. ⁷ The king arose in anger^(L) and went from where they were drinking wine to the palace garden.^[c](M) Haman remained to beg Queen Esther for his life because he realized the king was planning something terrible for him.^{(N) 8} Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall,^[d] Haman was falling on the couch^(O) where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually violate the queen while I am in the house?” As soon as the statement left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.^(P)

⁹ Harbona, one of the king’s eunuchs,^(Q) said, “There is a gallows seventy-five feet^[e] tall at Haman’s house that he made for Mordecai,^(R) who gave the report that saved^[f] the king.”^(S)

The king said, “Hang him on it.”

¹⁰ They hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.^(T) Then the king’s anger subsided.^(U)

Esther Intervenes for the Jews

8 That same day King Ahasuerus awarded Queen Esther the estate^(V) of Haman, the enemy of the Jews.^(W) Mordecai entered the king’s presence because Esther had revealed her relationship to Mordecai.^{(X) 2} The king removed his signet ring he had recovered from Haman^(Y) and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther put him in charge of Haman’s estate.

³ Then Esther addressed the king again.^(Z) She fell at his feet, wept, and begged^(AA) him to revoke the evil of Haman the Agagite^(AB) and his plot he had devised against the Jews.^{(AC) 4} The king extended the gold scepter^(AD) toward Esther, so she got up and stood before the king.

⁵ She said, “If it pleases the king and I have found favor with him, if the matter seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes,^(AE) let a royal edict be written. Let it revoke the documents the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.^{(AF) 6} For how could I bear to see the disaster that would come on my people?^(AG) How could I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?” ^(AH)

⁷ King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have given Haman’s estate to Esther,^(AI) and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked^[g] the Jews.^{(AJ) 8} Write in the king’s name whatever pleases you^(AK) concerning the Jews, and seal it with the royal signet ring.^(AL) A document written in the king’s name and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked.”^(AM)

⁹ On the twenty-third day of the third month^(AN)—that is, the month Sivan—the royal scribes were summoned. Everything was written exactly as Mordecai^(AO) commanded for the Jews, to the satraps,^(AP) the governors, and the officials of the 127 provinces from India to Cush.^(AQ) The edict was written for each province in its own script, for each ethnic group in its own language,^(AR) and to the Jews in their own script and language.

¹⁰ Mordecai wrote in King Ahasuerus’s name and sealed the edicts with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers,^(AS) who rode fast horses^(AT) bred in the royal stables.

¹¹ The king’s edict gave the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate every ethnic and provincial army hostile to them, including women and children, and to take their possessions as spoils of war.^{(AU) 12} This would take place on a single day throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar.^(AV)

¹³ A copy of the text, issued as law throughout every province, was distributed to all the peoples^(AW) so the Jews could be ready to avenge themselves against their enemies on that day. ¹⁴ The couriers rode out in haste on their royal horses at the king’s urgent command. The law was also issued in the fortress of Susa.^(AX)

¹⁵ Mordecai went from the king’s presence clothed in royal blue and white, with a great gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen.^(AY) The city of Susa shouted and rejoiced,^{(AZ) 16} and the Jews celebrated^[h] with gladness, joy, and honor.^{(BA) 17} In every province and every city where the king’s command and edict reached, gladness and joy took place among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday.^[i](BB) And many of the ethnic groups of the land professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews^(BC) had overcome them.

Twelve Disciples of John the Baptist

19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples^{(A) 2} and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” ^(B)

“No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”^(C)

³ “Into what then were you baptized?” he asked them.

“Into John’s baptism,” they replied.^(D)

⁴ Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance,^(E) telling the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.”^(F)

⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands on^(G) them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in tongues^[a] and to prophesy.^{(H) 7} Now there were about twelve men in all.

In the Lecture Hall of Tyrannus

⁸ Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God.^{(I) 9} But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.^{(J) 10} This went on for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks,^(K) heard the word of the Lord.^(L)

Demonism Defeated at Ephesus

¹¹ God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, ¹² so that even facecloths or aprons^[b] that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.^(M)

¹³ Now some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists also attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!” ^{(N) 14} Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this. ¹⁵ The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul—but who are you?” ¹⁶ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ When this became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, they became afraid, and the name of the Lord Jesus^(O) was held in high esteem.^(P)

¹⁸ And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, ¹⁹ while many of those who had practiced magic^(Q) collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ In this way the word of the Lord spread and prevailed.^(R)

Psalm 87

Zion, the City of God

A psalm of the sons of Korah. A song.