Prior to Esther's second banquet, King Ahasuerus is unable to sleep. He orders a servant to read to him the book recording the past events of his reign. One of the events is about a man who informed the king that two of his servants were plotting the king's murder; the plot was thwarted and the servants executed. The king learns that the man who saved him, Mordecai, was never properly rewarded. He sends Haman, who unbeknownst to the king despises Mordecai and his people, to honor Mordecai in a manner that Haman himself has unwittingly prescribed. Humiliated, Haman obeys the king and then returns home.
But soon after, Haman and the king attend Esther's second banquet. The king is again so moved that he offers to grant Esther anything she asks. She asks that the king spare her life and the life of her people. She explains that they have been targeted for destruction by an enemy. At the king's prompting, Esther reveals that she is Jewish and that this enemy she peaks of is Haman. The king is enraged and orders that Haman be put to death, hanged from the fifty-foot gibbet that Haman had built to execute Mordecai. The king gives to Esther the house of Haman, in which she establishes Mordecai. Mordecai becomes a powerful man within the royal household.
Esther and Mordecai work together to reverse the original decree permitting the slaughter of the Jews throughout Ahasuerus' empire. Instead, many of the enemies of the Jews are killed on the date originally set for the pogrom, inclding Haman's ten sons. Two days of celebration are established, and for generations after, down to today, the feast of Purim is observed to celebrate the deliverance of the Jews from their enemies led by Haman. More broadly, it is a celebration of God's favor and love and watchfulness for those who are faithful to him.
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