7So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet.H4428H2001H935H8354H635H44362On this second occasion, while they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, "Tell me what you want, Queen Esther. What is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom!"H4428H559H635H8145H3117H4960H3196H7596H4436H635H5414H1246H6213H2677H44383Queen Esther replied, "If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request, I ask that my life and the lives of my people will be spared.H635H4436H6030H559H4672H2580H5869H4428H2895H4428H5315H5414H7596H5971H12464For my people and I have been sold to those who would kill, slaughter, and annihilate us. If we had merely been sold as slaves, I could remain quiet, for that would be too trivial a matter to warrant disturbing the king."H4376H5971H8045H2026H6H432H4376H5650H8198H2790H6862H7737H4428H51435"Who would do such a thing?" King Xerxes demanded. "Who would be so presumptuous as to touch you?"H4428H325H559H559H635H4436H4390H3820H62136Esther replied, "This wicked Haman is our adversary and our enemy." Haman grew pale with fright before the king and queen.H635H559H376H6862H341H7451H2001H2001H1204H6440H4428H44367Then the king jumped to his feet in a rage and went out into the palace garden. Haman, however, stayed behind to plead for his life with Queen Esther, for he knew that the king intended to kill him.H4428H6965H4960H3196H2534H1055H1594H2001H5975H1245H5315H635H4436H7200H7451H3615H44288In despair he fell on the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king was returning from the palace garden. The king exclaimed, "Will he even assault the queen right here in the palace, before my very eyes?" And as soon as the king spoke, his attendants covered Haman's face, signaling his doom.H4428H7725H1055H1594H1004H4960H3196H2001H5307H4296H635H559H4428H3533H4436H1004H1697H3318H4428H6310H2645H2001H64409Then Harbona, one of the king's eunuchs, said, "Haman has set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall in his own courtyard. He intended to use it to impale Mordecai, the man who saved the king from assassination." "Then impale Haman on it!" the king ordered.H2726H259H5631H559H6440H4428H6086H2572H520H1364H2001H6213H4782H1696H2896H4428H5975H1004H2001H4428H559H851810So they impaled Haman on the pole he had set up for Mordecai, and the king's anger subsided.H8518H2001H6086H3559H4782H4428H2534H7918