Esther 5:14

⁴The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outer court of the king’s house, to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

¹⁴The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright on the path.

³²The wicked watch the righteous, and seek to kill him.

⁷Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

⁹Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were with the king, said, “Behold, the gallows fifty cubits^[+] high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman’s house.” The king said, “Hang him on it!”

¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.

¹³He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows. ¹⁴Behold, ^[+] he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood. ¹⁵He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made. ¹⁶The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

¹⁴They came to the chief priests and the elders, and said, “We have bound ourselves under a great curse to taste nothing until we have killed Paul. ¹⁵Now therefore, you with the council inform the commanding officer that he should bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to judge his case more exactly. We are ready to kill him before he comes near.”

⁸Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different from other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain. ⁹If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents^[+] of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king’s business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”

¹⁰The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. ¹¹The king said to Haman, “The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.”

¹²Then the king’s scribes were called in on the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month; and all that Haman commanded was written to the king’s local governors, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king’s ring. ¹³Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions. ¹⁴A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day. ¹⁵The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed.

¹⁰Those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, and they will be glad. They will give gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

¹⁹Herodias set herself against him and desired to kill him, but she couldn’t, ²⁰for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly.

²¹Then a convenient day came when Herod on his birthday made a supper for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee. ²²When the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those sitting with him. The king said to the young lady, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” ²³He swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.”

²⁴She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” She said, “The head of John the Baptizer.”