The king couldn’t sleep that night. He commanded that the book of records of the chronicles be brought, and they were read before the king. 2It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who were doorkeepers, who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus1. 3The king said, “What honour and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?”
Then the king’s servants who served him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
4The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outward court of the king’s house to speak to the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
5The king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman stands in the court.”
The king said, “Let him come in.” 6So Haman came in. The king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honour?”
Now Haman said in his heart, “To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?” 7Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honour, 8let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a royal crown is set: 9and let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may dress the man whom the king delights to honour, and cause him to ride on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honour.'”
10Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.”
11Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and dressed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honour.”
12Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered. 13Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, be of the seed of the Jews, you shall not prevail against him, but shall surely fall before him.” 14While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
- 6:2 Ahasuerus, or Xerxes. ↩︎