Month: December 2019

Nehemiah 12

List of Priests and Levites

1 The following is a list of the priests and Levites who returned from exile with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and with the High Priest Joshua:

Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah, Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah, Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, and Jedaiah.

These men were leaders among all their fellow priests in the days of Joshua.

The following were in charge of the singing of hymns of thanksgiving: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah.

9 The following formed the choir that sang the responses: Bakbukiah, Unno, and their fellow Levites.

Descendants of the High Priest Joshua

10 Joshua was the father of Joiakim; Joiakim was the father of Eliashib; Eliashib was the father of Joiada;

11 Joiada was the father of Jonathan; and Jonathan was the father of Jaddua.

Heads of the Priestly Clans

12-21 When Joiakim was High Priest, the following priests were the heads of the priestly clans:

Meraiah Seraiah
Hananiah Jeremiah
Meshullam Ezra
Jehohanan Amariah
Jonathan Malluchi
Joseph Shebaniah
Adna Harim
Helkai Meraioth
Zechariah Iddo
Meshullam Ginnethon
Zichri Abijah
… Miniamin
Piltai Moadiah
Shammua Bilgah
Jehonathan Shemaiah
Mattenai Joiarib
Uzzi Jedaiah
Kallai Sallai
Eber Amok
Hashabiah Hilkiah
Nethanel Jedaiah

Record of the Priestly and Levite Families

22 A record was kept of the heads of the Levite families and of the priestly families during the lifetimes of the following High Priests: Eliashib, Joiada, Jonathan, and Jaddua. This record was finished when Darius was emperor of Persia.

23 The heads of the Levite families, however, were recorded in the official records only until the time of Jonathan, the grandson of Eliashib.

Assignment of Duties in the Temple

24 Under the direction of Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua, Binnui,and Kadmiel, the Levites were organized into groups. Two groups at a time praised God responsively and gave thanks to him, in accordance with the instructions given by King David, the man of God.

25 The following Temple guards were in charge of guarding the storerooms by the gates to the Temple: Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub.

26 These people lived during the time of Joiakim, the son of Joshua and grandson of Jehozadak, and the time of Nehemiah the governor, and the time of Ezra, the priest who was a scholar of the Law.

Nehemiah Dedicates the City Wall

27 When the city wall of Jerusalem was dedicated, the Levites were brought in from wherever they were living, so that they could join in celebrating the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals and harps.

28 The Levite families of singers gathered from the area where they had settled around Jerusalem and from the towns around Netophah,

29 and from Bethgilgal, Geba, and Azmaveth.

30 The priests and the Levites performed ritual purification for themselves, the people, the gates, and the city wall.

31 I assembled the leaders of Judah on top of the wall and put them in charge of two large groups to march around the city, giving thanks to God.

The first group went to the right on top of the wall toward the Rubbish Gate.

32 Hoshaiah marched behind the singers, followed by half the leaders of Judah.

33-35 The following priests, blowing trumpets, marched next: Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah. Next came Zechariah, the son of Jonathan and grandson of Shemaiah. (His ancestors also included Mattaniah, Micaiah, and Zaccur, of the clan of Asaph.)

36 He was followed by other members of his clan—Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani—all of whom carried musical instruments of the kind played by King David, the man of God. Ezra the scholar led this group in the procession.

37 At the Fountain Gate they went up the steps that led to David’s City, past David’s palace, and back to the wall at the Water Gate, on the east side of the city.

38 The other group of those who gave thanks went to the left along the top of the wall, and I followed with half of the people. We marched past the Tower of the Ovens to the Broad Wall,

39 and from there we went past Ephraim Gate, Jeshanah Gate,the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, and the Tower of the Hundred, to the Sheep Gate. We ended our march near the gate to the Temple.

40 So both the groups that were giving thanks to God reached the Temple area.

In addition to the leaders who were with me,

41 my group included the following priests, blowing trumpets: Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah;

42 and they were followed by Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. The singers, led by Jezrahiah, sang at the top of their voices.

43 That day many sacrifices were offered, and the people were full of joy because God had made them very happy. The women and the children joined in the celebration, and the noise they all made could be heard for miles.

Providing for Worship in the Temple

44 At that time men were put in charge of the storerooms where contributions for the Temple were kept, including the tithes and the first grain and fruit that ripened each year. These men were responsible for collecting from the farms near the various cities the contributions for the priests and the Levites which the Law required. All the people of Judah were pleased with the priests and the Levites,

45 because they performed the ceremonies of purification and the other rituals that God had commanded. The Temple musicians and the Temple guards also performed their duties in accordance with the regulations made by King David and his son Solomon.

46 From the time of King David and the musician Asaph long ago, the musicians have led songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

47 In the time of Zerubbabel and also in the time of Nehemiah, all the people of Israel gave daily gifts for the support of the Temple musicians and the Temple guards. The people gave a sacred offering to the Levites, and the Levites gave the required portion to the priests.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/NEH/12-b42fdb93703952a888cc1d145fc606f2.mp3?version_id=68—

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 13

Separation from Foreigners

1 When the Law of Moses was being read aloud to the people, they came to the passage that said that no Ammonite or Moabite was ever to be permitted to join God’s people.

2 This was because the people of Ammon and Moab did not give food and water to the Israelites on their way out of Egypt. Instead, they paid money to Balaam to curse Israel, but our God turned the curse into a blessing.

3 When the people of Israel heard this law read, they excluded all foreigners from the community.

Nehemiah’s Reforms

4 The priest Eliashib, who was in charge of the Temple storerooms, had for a long time been on good terms with Tobiah.

5 He allowed Tobiah to use a large room that was intended only for storing offerings of grain and incense, the equipment used in the Temple, the offerings for the priests, and the tithes of grain, wine, and olive oil given to the Levites, to the Temple musicians, and to the Temple guards.

6 While this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, because in the thirty-second year that Artaxerxeswas king of Babylon I had gone back to report to him. After some time I received his permission

7 and returned to Jerusalem. There I was shocked to find that Eliashib had allowed Tobiah to use a room in the Temple.

8 I was furious and threw out all of Tobiah’s belongings.

9 I gave orders for the rooms to be ritually purified and for the Temple equipment, grain offerings, and incense to be put back.

10 I also learned that the Temple musicians and other Levites had left Jerusalem and gone back to their farms, because the people had not been giving them enough to live on.

11 I reprimanded the officials for letting the Temple be neglected. And I brought the Levites and musicians back to the Temple and put them to work again.

12 Then all the people of Israel again started bringing to the Temple storerooms their tithes of grain, wine, and olive oil.

13 I put the following men in charge of the storerooms: Shelemiah, a priest; Zadok, a scholar of the Law; and Pedaiah, a Levite. Hanan, the son of Zaccur and grandson of Mattaniah, was to be their assistant. I knew I could trust these men to be honest in distributing the supplies to the other workers.

14 Remember, my God, all these things that I have done for your Temple and its worship.

15 At that time I saw people in Judah pressing juice from grapes on the Sabbath. Others were loading grain, wine, grapes, figs, and other things on their donkeys and taking them into Jerusalem; I warned them not to sell anything on the Sabbath.

16 Some people from the city of Tyre were living in Jerusalem, and they brought fish and all kinds of goods into the city to sell to our people on the Sabbath.

17 I reprimanded the Jewish leaders and told them, “Look at the evil you’re doing! You’re making the Sabbath unholy.

18 This is exactly why God punished your ancestors when he brought destruction on this city. And yet you insist on bringing more of God’s anger down on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

19 So I gave orders for the city gates to be shut at the beginning of every Sabbath, as soon as eveningbegan to fall, and not to be opened again until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my men at the gates to make sure that nothing was brought into the city on the Sabbath.

20 Once or twice merchants who sold all kinds of goods spent Friday night outside the city walls.

21 I warned them, “It’s no use waiting out there for morning to come. If you try this again, I’ll use force on you.” From then on they did not come back on the Sabbath.

22 I ordered the Levites to purify themselves and to go and guard the gates to make sure that the Sabbath was kept holy.

Remember me, O God, for this also, and spare me because of your great love.

23 At that time I also discovered that many of the Jewish men had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or some other language and didn’t know how to speak our language.

25 I reprimanded the men, called down curses on them, beat them, and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath in God’s name that never again would they or their children intermarry with foreigners.

26 I told them, “It was foreign women that made King Solomon sin. Here was a man who was greater than any of the kings of other nations. God loved him and made him king over all of Israel, and yet he fell into this sin.

27 Are we then to follow your example and disobey our God by marrying foreign women?”

28 Joiada was the son of Eliashib the High Priest, but one of Joiada’s sons married the daughter of Sanballat, from the town of Beth Horon, so I made Joiada leave Jerusalem.

29 Remember, God, how those people defiled both the office of priest and the covenant you made with the priests and the Levites.

30 I purified the people from everything foreign; I prepared regulations for the priests and the Levites so that all of them would know their duties;

31 I arranged for the wood used for burning the offerings to be brought at the proper times, and for the people to bring their offerings of the first grain and the first fruits that ripened.

Remember all this, O God, and give me credit for it.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/NEH/13-1f10a5220d5fda50a8ec554ad73fa2eb.mp3?version_id=68—

Esther

Esther Introduction

Introduction

The events of

The book of Esther

which take place at the winter residence of the Persian emperor, center around a Jewish heroine named Esther, who by her great courage and devotion to her people saved them from being exterminated by their enemies. The book explains the background and meaning of the Jewish festival of Purim.

Outline of Contents

Esther becomes queen (1.1—2.23)

Haman’s plots (3.1—5.14)

Haman is put to death (6.1—7.10)

The Jews defeat their enemies (8.1—10.3)

Esther

Esther 1

Queen Vashti Defies King Xerxes

1-2 From his royal throne in Persia’s capital city of Susa, King Xerxes ruled 127 provinces, all the way from India to Ethiopia.

3 In the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his officials and administrators. The armies of Persia and Media were present, as well as the governors and noblemen of the provinces.

4 For six whole months he made a show of the riches of the imperial court with all its splendor and majesty.

5 After that, the king gave a banquet for all the people in the capital city of Susa, rich and poor alike. It lasted a whole week and was held in the gardens of the royal palace.

6 The courtyard there was decorated with blue and white cotton curtains, tied by cords of fine purple linen to silver rings on marble columns. Couches made of gold and silver had been placed in the courtyard, which was paved with white marble, red feldspar, shining mother-of-pearl, and blue turquoise.

7 Drinks were served in gold cups, no two of them alike, and the king was generous with the royal wine.

8 There were no limits on the drinks; the king had given orders to the palace servants that everyone could have as much as they wanted.

9 Meanwhile, inside the royal palace Queen Vashti was giving a banquet for the women.

10 On the seventh day of his banquet the king was drinking and feeling happy, so he called in the seven eunuchs who were his personal servants, Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas.

11 He ordered them to bring in Queen Vashti, wearing her royal crown. The queen was a beautiful woman, and the king wanted to show off her beauty to the officials and all his guests.

12 But when the servants told Queen Vashti of the king’s command, she refused to come. This made the king furious.

13 Now it was the king’s custom to ask for expert opinion on questions of law and order, so he called for his advisers, who would know what should be done.

14 Those he most often turned to for advice were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan—seven officials of Persia and Media who held the highest offices in the kingdom.

15 He said to these men, “I, King Xerxes, sent my servants to Queen Vashti with a command, and she refused to obey it! What does the law say that we should do with her?”

16 Then Memucan declared to the king and his officials: “Queen Vashti has insulted not only the king but also his officials—in fact, every man in the empire!

17 Every woman in the empire will start looking down on her husband as soon as she hears what the queen has done. They’ll say, ‘King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to come to him, and she refused.’

18 When the wives of the royal officials of Persia and Media hear about the queen’s behavior, they will be telling their husbands about it before the day is out. Wives everywhere will have no respect for their husbands, and husbands will be angry with their wives.

19 If it please Your Majesty, issue a royal proclamation that Vashti may never again appear before the king. Have it written into the laws of Persia and Media, so that it can never be changed. Then give her place as queen to some better woman.

20 When your proclamation is made known all over this huge empire, every woman will treat her husband with proper respect, whether he’s rich or poor.”

21 The king and his officials liked this idea, and the king did what Memucan suggested.

22 To each of the royal provinces he sent a message in the language and the system of writing of that province, sayingthat every husband should be the master of his home and speak with final authority.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/EST/1-20cbf3cd413c4bf316d343094cfb937f.mp3?version_id=68—

Esther

Esther 2

Esther Becomes Queen

1 Later, even after the king’s anger had cooled down, he kept thinking about what Vashti had done and about his proclamation against her.

2 So some of the king’s advisers who were close to him suggested, “Why don’t you make a search to find some beautiful young virgins?

3 You can appoint officials in every province of the empire and have them bring all these beautiful young women to your harem here in Susa, the capital city. Put them in the care of Hegai, the eunuch who is in charge of your women, and let them be given a beauty treatment.

4 Then take the young woman you like best and make her queen in Vashti’s place.”

The king thought this was good advice, so he followed it.

5 There in Susa lived a Jew named Mordecai son of Jair; he was from the tribe of Benjamin and was a descendant of Kish and Shimei.

6 When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took King Jehoiachin of Judah into exile from Jerusalem, along with a group of captives, Mordecai was among them.

7 He had a cousin, Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah; she was a beautiful young woman, and had a good figure. At the death of her parents, Mordecai had adopted her and brought her up as his own daughter.

8 When the king had issued his new proclamation and many young women were being brought to Susa, Esther was among them. She too was put in the royal palace in the care of Hegai, who had charge of the harem.

9 Hegai liked Esther, and she won his favor. He lost no time in beginning her beauty treatment of massage and special diet. He gave her the best place in the harem and assigned seven young women specially chosen from the royal palace to serve her.

10 Now, on the advice of Mordecai, Esther had kept it secret that she was Jewish.

11 Every day Mordecai would walk back and forth in front of the courtyard of the harem, in order to find out how she was getting along and what was going to happen to her.

12 The regular beauty treatment for the women lasted a year—massages with oil of myrrh for six months and with oil of balsam for six more. After that, each woman would be taken in turn to King Xerxes.

13 When she went from the harem to the palace, she could wear whatever she wanted.

14 She would go there in the evening, and the next morning she would be taken to another harem and put in the care of Shaashgaz, the eunuch in charge of the king’s concubines. She would not go to the king again unless he liked her enough to ask for her by name.

15 The time came for Esther to go to the king. Esther—the daughter of Abihail and the cousin of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his daughter; Esther—admired by everyone who saw her. When her turn came, she wore just what Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem, advised her to wear.

16 So in Xerxes’ seventh year as king, in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, Esther was brought to King Xerxes in the royal palace.

17 The king liked her more than any of the other women, and more than any of the others she won his favor and affection. He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti.

18 Then the king gave a great banquet in Esther’s honor and invited all his officials and administrators. He proclaimed a holidayfor the whole empire and distributed gifts worthy of a king.

Mordecai Saves the King’s Life

19 Meanwhile Mordecai had been appointed by the king to an administrative position.

20 As for Esther, she had still not let it be known that she was Jewish. Mordecai had told her not to tell anyone, and she obeyed him in this, just as she had obeyed him when she was a little girl under his care.

21 During the time that Mordecai held office in the palace, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the palace eunuchs who guarded the entrance to the king’s rooms, became hostile to King Xerxes and plotted to assassinate him.

22 Mordecai learned about it and told Queen Esther, who then told the king what Mordecai had found out.

23 There was an investigation, and it was discovered that the report was true, so both men were hanged on the gallows. The king ordered an account of this to be written down in the official records of the empire.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/EST/2-5b706a20286e562ab7485e7ea85f7495.mp3?version_id=68—

Esther

Esther 3

Haman Plots to Destroy the Jews

1 Some time later King Xerxes promoted a man named Haman to the position of prime minister. Haman was the son of Hammedatha, a descendant of Agag.

2 The king ordered all the officials in his service to show their respect for Haman by kneeling and bowing to him. They all did so, except for Mordecai, who refused to do it.

3 The other officials in the royal service asked him why he was disobeying the king’s command;

4 day after day they urged him to give in, but he would not listen to them. “I am a Jew,” he explained, “and I cannot bow to Haman.” So they told Haman about this, wondering if he would tolerate Mordecai’s conduct.

5 Haman was furious when he realized that Mordecai was not going to kneel and bow to him,

6 and when he learned that Mordecai was a Jew, he decided to do more than punish Mordecai alone. He made plans to kill every Jew in the whole Persian Empire.

7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes’ rule, in the first month, the month of Nisan, Haman ordered the lots to be cast (“purim,” they were called) to find out the right day and month to carry out his plot. The thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, was decided on.

8 So Haman told the king, “There is a certain race of people scattered all over your empire and found in every province. They observe customs that are not like those of any other people. Moreover, they do not obey the laws of the empire, so it is not in your best interests to tolerate them.

9 If it please Your Majesty, issue a decree that they are to be put to death. If you do, I guarantee that I will be able to put 375 tons of silver into the royal treasury for the administration of the empire.”

10 The king took off his ring, which was used to stamp proclamations and make them official, and gave it to the enemy of the Jewish people, Haman son of Hammedatha, the descendant of Agag.

11 The king told him, “The people and their money are yours; do as you like with them.”

12 So on the thirteenth day of the first month Haman called the king’s secretaries and dictated a proclamation to be translated into every language and system of writing used in the empire and to be sent to all the rulers, governors, and officials. It was issued in the name of King Xerxes and stamped with his ring.

13 Runners took this proclamation to every province of the empire. It contained the instructions that on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, all Jews—young and old, women and children—were to be killed. They were to be slaughtered without mercy and their belongings were to be taken.

14 The contents of the proclamation were to be made public in every province, so that everyone would be prepared when that day came.

15 At the king’s command the decree was made public in the capital city of Susa, and runners carried the news to the provinces. The king and Haman sat down and had a drink while the city of Susa was being thrown into confusion.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/EST/3-3a740550efaa8936306f70281f622fda.mp3?version_id=68—

Esther

Esther 4

Knitting Rope Knot Knotted Book Connection Bible

Mordecai Asks for Esther’s Help

1 When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes in anguish. Then he dressed in sackcloth, covered his head with ashes, and walked through the city, wailing loudly and bitterly,

2 until he came to the entrance of the palace. He did not go in because no one wearing sackcloth was allowed inside.

3 Throughout all the provinces, wherever the king’s proclamation was made known, there was loud mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, wailed, and most of them put on sackcloth and lay in ashes.

4 When Esther’s servant women and eunuchs told her what Mordecai was doing, she was deeply disturbed. She sent Mordecai some clothes to put on instead of the sackcloth, but he would not accept them.

5 Then she called Hathach, one of the palace eunuchs appointed as her servant by the king, and told him to go to Mordecai and find out what was happening and why.

6 Hathach went to Mordecai in the city square at the entrance of the palace.

7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him and just how much money Haman had promised to put into the royal treasury if all the Jews were killed.

8 He gave Hathach a copy of the proclamation that had been issued in Susa, ordering the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai asked him to take it to Esther, explain the situation to her, and have her go and plead with the king and beg him to have mercy on her people.

9 Hathach did this,

10 and Esther gave him this message to take back to Mordecai:

11 “If anyone, man or woman, goes to the inner courtyard and sees the king without being summoned, that person must die. That is the law; everyone, from the king’s advisers to the people in the provinces, knows that. There is only one way to get around this law: if the king holds out his gold scepter to someone, then that person’s life is spared. But it has been a month since the king sent for me.”

12 When Mordecai received Esther’s message,

13 he sent her this warning: “Don’t imagine that you are safer than any other Jew just because you are in the royal palace.

14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, help will come from heaven to the Jews, and they will be saved, but you will die and your father’s family will come to an end. Yet who knows—maybe it was for a time like this that you were made queen!”

15 Esther sent Mordecai this reply:

16 “Go and get all the Jews in Susa together; hold a fast and pray for me. Don’t eat or drink anything for three days and nights. My servant women and I will be doing the same. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. If I must die for doing it, I will die.”

17 Mordecai then left and did everything that Esther had told him to do.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/EST/4-4e855cb7155c01171c98eba7fdff69c7.mp3?version_id=68—

Esther

Esther 5

Esther Invites the King and Haman to a Banquet

1 On the third day of her fast Esther put on her royal robes and went and stood in the inner courtyard of the palace, facing the throne room. The king was inside, seated on the royal throne, facing the entrance.

2 When the king saw Queen Esther standing outside, she won his favor, and he held out to her the gold scepter. She then came up and touched the tip of it.

3 “What is it, Queen Esther?” the king asked. “Tell me what you want, and you shall have it—even if it is half my empire.”

4 Esther replied, “If it please Your Majesty, I would like you and Haman to be my guests tonight at a banquet I am preparing for you.”

5 The king then ordered Haman to come quickly, so that they could be Esther’s guests. So the king and Haman went to Esther’s banquet.

6 Over the wine the king asked her, “Tell me what you want, and you shall have it. I will grant your request, even if you ask for half my empire.”

7 Esther replied,

8 “If Your Majesty is kind enough to grant my request, I would like you and Haman to be my guests tomorrow at another banquet that I will prepare for you. At that time I will tell you what I want.”

Haman Plots to Kill Mordecai

9 When Haman left the banquet he was happy and in a good mood. But then he saw Mordecai at the entrance of the palace, and when Mordecai did not rise or show any sign of respect as he passed, Haman was furious with him.

10 But he controlled himself and went on home. Then he invited his friends to his house and asked his wife Zeresh to join them.

11 He boasted to them about how rich he was, how many sons he had, how the king had promoted him to high office, and how much more important he was than any of the king’s other officials.

12 “What is more,” Haman went on, “Queen Esther gave a banquet for no one but the king and me, and we are invited back tomorrow.

13 But none of this means a thing to me as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the entrance of the palace.”

14 So his wife and all his friends suggested, “Why don’t you have a gallows built, seventy-five feet tall? Tomorrow morning you can ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it, and then you can go to the banquet happy.”

Haman thought this was a good idea, so he had the gallows built.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/EST/5-fb06c4b8b3035f4c015f3110055e0091.mp3?version_id=68—

Esther

Esther 6

The King Honors Mordecai

1 That same night the king could not get to sleep, so he had the official records of the empire brought and read to him.

2 The part they read included the account of how Mordecai had uncovered a plot to assassinate the king—the plot made by Bigthana and Teresh, the two palace eunuchs who had guarded the king’s rooms.

3 The king asked, “How have we honored and rewarded Mordecai for this?”

His servants answered, “Nothing has been done for him.”

4 “Are any of my officials in the palace?” the king asked.

Now Haman had just entered the courtyard; he had come to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows that was now ready.

5 So the servants answered, “Haman is here, waiting to see you.”

“Show him in,” said the king.

6 So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “There is someone I wish very much to honor. What should I do for this man?”

Haman thought to himself, “Now who could the king want to honor so much? Me, of course.”

7-8 So he answered the king, “Have royal robes brought for this man—robes that you yourself wear. Have a royal ornamentput on your own horse.

9 Then have one of your highest noblemen dress the man in these robes and lead him, mounted on the horse, through the city square. Have the nobleman announce as they go: ‘See how the king rewards someone he wishes to honor!’”

10 Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and get the robes and the horse, and provide these honors for Mordecai the Jew. Do everything for him that you have suggested. You will find him sitting at the entrance of the palace.”

11 So Haman got the robes and the horse, and he put the robes on Mordecai. Mordecai got on the horse, and Haman led him through the city square, announcing to the people as they went: “See how the king rewards a man he wishes to honor!”

12 Mordecai then went back to the palace entrance while Haman hurried home, covering his face in embarrassment.

13 He told his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then she and those wise friends of his told him, “You are beginning to lose power to Mordecai. He is a Jew, and you cannot overcome him. He will certainly defeat you.”

Haman Is Put to Death

14 While they were still talking, the palace eunuchs arrived in a hurry to take Haman to Esther’s banquet.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/EST/6-11644fb64b3164e8a5cbb1fb50d46602.mp3?version_id=68—

Esther

Esther 7

1 And so the king and Haman went to eat with Esther

2 for a second time. Over the wine the king asked her again, “Now, Queen Esther, what do you want? Tell me and you shall have it. I’ll even give you half the empire.”

3 Queen Esther answered, “If it please Your Majesty to grant my humble request, my wish is that I may live and that my people may live.

4 My people and I have been sold for slaughter. If it were nothing more serious than being sold into slavery, I would have kept quiet and not bothered you about it;but we are about to be destroyed—exterminated!”

5 Then King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who dares to do such a thing? Where is this man?”

6 Esther answered, “Our enemy, our persecutor, is this evil man Haman!”

Haman faced the king and queen with terror.

7 The king got up in a fury, left the room, and went outside to the palace gardens. Haman could see that the king was determined to punish him for this, so he stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

8 He had just thrown himself down on Esther’s couch to beg for mercy, when the king came back into the room from the gardens. Seeing this, the king cried out, “Is this man going to rape the queen right here in front of me, in my own palace?”

The king had no sooner said this than the eunuchs covered Haman’s head.

9 Then one of them, who was named Harbonah, said, “Haman even went so far as to build a gallows at his house so that he could hang Mordecai, who saved Your Majesty’s life. And it’s seventy-five feet tall!”

“Hang Haman on it!” the king commanded.

10 So Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built for Mordecai. Then the king’s anger cooled down.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/EST/7-86e4f3c2bbdb4659e0b85476730e1c96.mp3?version_id=68—