⁴ saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”

⁵ Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and ^(A)departed, and went and hanged himself.

³ Then Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. ⁴ For we have been ^(A)sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as ^(B)male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”

⁵ So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?”

⁶ And Esther said, “The adversary and ^(C)enemy is this wicked Haman!”

So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

⁷ Then the king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stood before Queen Esther, pleading for his life, for he saw that evil was determined against him by the king. ⁸ When the king returned from the palace garden to the place of the banquet of wine, Haman had fallen across ^(D)the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he also assault the queen while I am in the house?”

As the word left the king’s mouth, they ^(E)covered Haman’s face. ⁹ Now ^(F)Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, said to the king, “Look! ^(G)The ^[a]gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke ^(H)good on the king’s behalf, is standing at the house of Haman.”

Then the king said, “Hang him on it!”

¹⁰ So ^(I)they ^(J)hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath subsided.

²³ Now when Ahithophel saw that his advice was not followed, he saddled a donkey, and arose and went home to ^(A)his house, to his city. Then he ^[a]put his ^(B)household in order, and ^(C)hanged himself, and died; and he was buried in his father’s tomb.