₃Queen 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. ₄My 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!”

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

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

Haman stared at the king and queen in terror.

₉Then 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 22 metres tall!”

“Hang Haman on it!” the king commanded.

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

₂₀Mordecai had these events written down and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, throughout the Persian Empire, ₂₁telling them to observe the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar as holidays every year. ₂₂These were the days on which the Jews had rid themselves of their enemies; this was a month that had been turned from a time of grief and despair into a time of joy and happiness. They were told to observe these days with feasts and parties, giving gifts of food to one another and to the poor.