When the report about the queen goes out to all the women, it will cause them to despise their husbands. They'll say, "King Ahasuerus ordered Queen Vashti to be brought before him, but she wouldn't come.'

This very day the wives of the officials of Persia and Media who hear the report about the queen will speak in the same way to all the officials of the king, and there will be more than enough contempt and anger.

When the edict of the king that he issues is heard throughout his kingdom for it's vast then all the women will give honor to their husbands, from the greatest to the least important."

If the king approves, let it be decreed that they're to be destroyed, and I'll measure out 10,000 silver talents and bring it to the king's treasury for those who will do the work."

"Every servant of the king and every person in the king's provinces knows that for any man or woman who goes to the king in the inner court without being summoned there is only one law that he be put to death unless the king holds out the golden scepter to him. Only then he will live. For these last 30 days I've not been summoned to come to the king."

Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Don't suppose that because you are in the palace, you will escape any more than the other Jewish people.

Indeed, if you are silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. Who knows but that you were brought to the kingdom for a time like this?"

"Go and gather all the Jewish people who are in Susa and fast for me. Don't eat or drink for three days, night or day. Both I and my young women will also fast in the same way, and then I'll go in to the king, even though it's against the law. And if I perish, I perish."

The king asked her, "What do you want, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even if it's half of the kingdom, it will be given to you."

While they were drinking wine, the king asked Esther, "What's your petition? It will be given to you. What's your request? Up to half of the kingdom, and it will be done."

Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His wise friends and his wife Zeresh told him, "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is one of the Jewish people, you won't prevail against him. Instead, you will surely fall before him."

On the second day the king again told Esther as they drank wine, "What's your petition, Queen Esther? It will be given to you. What's your request? Up to half of the kingdom, and it will be done."

When the king returned to the banquet hall from the palace garden, Haman was prostrate on the couch where Esther was. The king asked, "Will this man even assault the queen with me in the house?" The king had no sooner spoken than they covered Haman's face.

The king told Queen Esther, "In Susa the capital the Jewish people have killed and destroyed 500 people, including Haman's ten sons. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what's your petition? It will be given to you. What's your further request? It will be done."