On the second day of the banquet of wine the king asked Esther, “What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your petition? Ask up to half the kingdom, and it shall be done!”p>

<p class="bodytext">Queen Esther replied, &#8220;If I have met with your approval,<n id="1" /> O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition.

<t /><p class="bodytext">On that same day King Ahasuerus gave the estate<n id="1" /> of Haman, that adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther. Now Mordecai had come before the king, for Esther had revealed how he was related to her.

<p class="bodytext">King Ahasuerus replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, &#8220;Look, I have already given Haman&#8217;s estate to Esther, and he has been hanged on the gallows because he took hostile action<n id="1" /> against the Jews.

<p class="bodytext">The king thereby allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and to stand up for themselves &#8211; to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any army of whatever people or province that should become their adversaries, including their women and children,<n id="1" /> and to confiscate their property.

Then the king said to Queen Esther, &#8220;In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman! What then have they done in the rest of the king&#8217;s provinces? What is your request? It shall be given to you. What other petition do you have? It shall be done.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Esther replied, &#8220;If the king is so inclined, let the Jews who are in Susa be permitted to act tomorrow also according to today&#8217;s law, and let them hang the ten sons of Haman on the gallows.&#8221;p>