20 And she proceeded to say: “There is one little request that I am making of you. Do not turn my face away.” So the king said to her: “Make it, my mother; for I shall not turn your face away.”

2 The king now said to Esther also on the second day during the banquet of wine:+ “What is your petition,+ O Esther the queen? Let it even be given to you.+ And what is your request? To the half of the kingship+—let it even be done!”