Esther 7

⁸If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, may the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king’s question.”

¹⁵The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.

²⁴Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

³“What is it, Queen Esther?” the king inquired. “What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given to you.”

¹²who said to Queen Esther, “In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men, including Haman’s ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the royal provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be given to you. And what further do you request? It will be fulfilled.”

⁶And as they drank their wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”

²⁶then tell them, ‘I was presenting to the king my petition that he not return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”

⁴“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up all he owns in exchange for his life.

⁷In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.

⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you prosper.

⁷May there be peace within your walls, and prosperity inside your fortresses.”

¹³So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. And the third captain went up, fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, “Man of God, may my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours please be precious in your sight.

³¹Then the servants of Ben-hadad said to him, “Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful. Let us go out to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads. Perhaps he will spare your life.”

⁹If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.”

¹³And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.

⁶⁸The Lord will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

¹¹By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.

²³Now therefore you are under a curse and will perpetually serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

⁶This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?

³³Isaac began to tremble violently and said, “Who was it, then, who hunted the game and brought it to me? Before you came in, I ate it all and blessed him—and indeed, he will be blessed!”

³Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and withhold some of the proceeds from the land?

⁵Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.

⁶The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.

⁸And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival.

¹³God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

¹⁹O God, that You would slay the wicked—away from me, you bloodthirsty men—

²⁰who speak of You deceitfully; Your enemies take Your name in vain.

²When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh, my enemies and foes stumbled and fell.

¹³As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand will never be against you.

¹²Queen Vashti, however, refused to come at the king’s command brought by his eunuchs. And the king became furious, and his anger burned within him.

⁹As for those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.

¹⁹The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

⁷If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he is enraged, you will know he has evil intentions.

¹²A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹⁰The wicked man will see and be grieved; he will gnash his teeth and waste away; the desires of the wicked will perish.

⁶Hangings of white and blue linen were fastened with cords of fine white and purple material to silver rings on the marble pillars. Gold and silver couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other costly stones.

¹²Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief.

¹⁷Look, O mighty man! The Lord is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you,

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?

²³Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”

¹⁵He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless directs their path, but the wicked fall by their own wickedness.

⁶The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the faithless are trapped by their own desires.

¹⁰On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was merry with wine, he ordered the seven eunuchs who served him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas—

¹⁴His wife Zeresh and all his friends told him, “Have them build a gallows fifty cubits high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go to the banquet with the king and enjoy yourself.” The advice pleased Haman, and he had the gallows constructed.

⁸May ruin befall them by surprise; may the net they hid ensnare them; may they fall into the hazard they created.

¹⁰Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

²⁴At the command of the king, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the den of lions—they and their children and wives. And before they had reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

¹³And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, in My zeal have spoken.

⁷And Samson told them, “Because you have done this, I will not rest until I have taken vengeance upon you.”

¹Some time later, when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what had been decreed against her.

⁸Then the Lord summoned me and said, “Behold, those going to the land of the north have given rest to My Spirit in the land of the north.”