As they drank their wine at the banquet, the king said to Esther, “What is your request, for it shall be granted to you. And what is your wish? Up to half of the kingdom it shall be done.”

So Esther replied, “My request and my wish is:

Haman also said, “Even Esther the queen let no one except me come with the king to the banquet which she had prepared; and tomorrow also I am invited by her with the king.

While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and quickly brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.

Esther’s Plea

Now the king and Haman came to drink wine with Esther the queen.

And the king said to Esther on the second day also as they drank their wine at the banquet, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your wish? Up to half of the kingdom it shall be done.”

Then Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my request, and my people as my wish;

Then King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who would presume to do such a thing?”

And Esther said, “A foe and an enemy is this wicked Haman!” Then Haman became terrified before the king and queen.

Haman Is Hanged

The king then got up in his anger from drinking wine and went into the palace garden; but Haman stayed to beg for his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that harm had been determined against him by the king.

Now when the king returned from the palace garden into the place where they had been drinking wine, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen with me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

Mordecai Promoted

On that day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther; and Mordecai came before the king, because Esther had disclosed what he was to her.

Then the king took off his signet ring, which he had taken away from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.

Then Esther spoke again to the king, fell at his feet, wept, and pleaded for his compassion to avert the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had devised against the Jews.

And the king extended the golden scepter to Esther. So Esther got up and stood before the king.

So King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and they have hanged him on the wooden gallows because he had reached out with his hand against the Jews.

And the king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and eliminated five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman at the citadel in Susa. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your request? It shall also be granted you. And what is your further wish? It shall also be done.”

Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let tomorrow also be granted to the Jews who are in Susa to do according to the edict of today; and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the wooden gallows.”

Then Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim.

to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and just as they had established for themselves and for their descendants, with instructions for their times of fasting and their mourning.

The command of Esther established these customs for Purim, and it was written in the book.