Esther 7 - 10

During the second banquet, the king asks queen Esther to make a request as she obviously wishes to do.  Esther humbly and graciously asks that her life be spared since her people have been given up to be annihilated.  The king demands to know who has planned such an atrocity against the queen and his identification is quickly revealed:  Haman.  As the king ponders what to do, Haman pleads for his life - so dramatically that when the king returns and finds Haman clinging to Esther, he interprets it as an assault on the queen herself.  The gallows Haman had constructed upon which to execute Mordecai are pressed into service and the man who commissioned them is put to death upon them.  Esther receives the house of Haman as an inheritance; Mordecai is promoted within the palace; and the Jews are legally enabled to defend themselves against the coming assault on them that Haman had plotted.  In the ensuing battle, the sons of Haman are eliminated, the Jews slaughter those who rise against them, and a feast is established (Purim) to commemorate all that has transpired in the preservation of God's people.  Mordecai continues to advance in the kingdom and is second only to the king throughout the empire.