1 Vieram o rei e Hamã a banquetear com a rainha Ester.2 Disse o rei a Ester também ao segundo dia durante o banquete de vinho: Qual é a tua petição, rainha Ester? e ser-te-á concedida; e qual é o teu rogo? ainda que peças metade do reino, cumprir-se-á.3 Ester respondeu-lhe: Se eu tiver alcançado o teu favor, ó rei, e se te parecer bem, seja-me concedida a minha vida, eis a minha petição, e a do meu povo, eis o meu rogo:4 porque fomos vendidos, eu e o meu povo, para que sejamos destruídos, mortos e pereçamos. Mas se tivéssemos sido vendidos por escravos e por escravas, eu me teria calado, ainda que o adversário não pudesse ter compensado a injúria feita ao rei.5 Então falou o rei Assuero e disse à rainha Ester: Quem é e onde está esse, cujo coração o instigou a fazer isso?6 Respondeu Ester: Um adversário e inimigo, este maldito Hamã. Então Hamã ficou aterrorizado perante o rei e a rainha.7 O rei no seu furor levantou-se do banquete de vinho, e entrou no jardim do palácio. Hamã pôs-se em pé para rogar à rainha Ester pela sua vida, pois viu que já o mal lhe estava determinado pelo rei.8 O rei voltou do jardim do palácio para o lugar do banquete de vinho; e Hamã tinha caído sobre o leito em que estava Ester. Disse o rei: Porventura quer ele forçar a rainha na minha presença e na minha casa? Ao sair a palavra da boca do rei, cobriram a Hamã o rosto.9 Disse Harbona, um dos eunucos que serviam o rei: Eis que existe na casa de Hamã a forca que tem cinqüenta cúbitos de altura, a qual Hamã tinha preparado para Mordecai, que falou em defesa do rei. Disse o rei: Pendurai-o nela.10 Penduraram a Hamã na forca, que ele tinha preparado para Mordecai. Então se aplacou o furor do rei.

1 So the king and Aman went in, to drink with the queen.2 And the king said to her again the second day, after he was warm with wine: What is thy petition, Esther, that it may be granted thee? and what wilt thou have done: although thou ask the half of my kingdom, thou shalt have it.3 Then she answered: If I have found Favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please thee, give me my life for which I ask, and my people for which I request.4 For we are given up, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. And would God we were sold for bondmen and bondwomen: the evil might be borne with, and I would have mourned in silence: but now we have an enemy, whose cruelty redoundeth upon the king.5 And king Assuerus answered and said: Who is this, and of what power, that he should do these things?6 And Esther said: It is this Aman that is our adversary and most wicked enemy. Aman hearing this was forthwith astonished, not being able to bear the countenance of the king and of the queen.7 But the king being angry rose up, and went from the place of the banquet into the garden set with trees. Aman also rose up to entreat Esther the queen for his life, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king.8 And when the king came back out of the garden set with trees, and entered into the place of the banquet, he found Aman was fallen upon the bed on which Esther lay, and he said: He will force the queen also in my presence, in my own house. The word was not yet gone out of the king's mouth, and immediately they covered his face.9 And Harbona, one of the eunuchs that stood waiting on the king, said: Behold the gibbet which he hath prepared for Mardochai, who spoke for the king, standeth in Aman's house, being fifty cubits high. And the king said to him: Hang him upon it.10 So Aman was hanged on the gibbet, which he had prepared for Mardochai: and the king's wrath ceased.