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At the second banquet, the king again asked Esther for her petition.
This time, she spoke:
"If I have found favour in thy sight, O king... let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish" (Esther 7:3-4)In the morning, the king asked Haman, "What should be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?"
Thinking it was about him, Haman replied: "He should wear the king's robe, ride the king's horse, and be paraded through the city with royal praise."
"Do all that," said the king, "for Mordecai the Jew."
Haman had to honor the very man he hated!
He returned home ashamed, but things would only get worse.
At Esther's second banquet, the king once more asked, "What is your request, my queen?"
This time, Esther revealed everything.
"We are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish." -Esther 7:4
"Who would dare do such a thing?" the king asked.
Esther turned and pointed: "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!"
The king stood up in fury. Haman panicked and threw himself on Esther's couch to beg for his life-just as the king walked back in.
"Will he assault the queen before me in the house?" the king shouted.
Haman was seized, and the gallows he had built for Mordecai? The king ordered Haman hanged upon it (Esther 7:10).
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