Esther 6

That night the king could not sleep. So he ordered the book of records, the royal chronicles, to be brought in, and they were read aloud to him.

1On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.

NoteThe Persian court kept an official daily record of the reign (decrees issued, petitions heard, services rendered) which could be read back to the king. Reading was normally done aloud by a servant; silent private reading was not the usual practice.

2It was found written there that Mordecai had reported Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the doorway, when they planned to kill King Ahasuerus.

2And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus.

Note"Chamberlains" in the King James Version translates a word for court officials who were typically eunuchs, castrated men, trusted precisely because they posed no threat to the royal succession and could serve near the king's household and women. "Ahasuerus" is the Hebrew form of the Persian throne name known in Greek as Xerxes. The plot recorded here took place earlier in the story (Esther 2:21-23), and Mordecai received nothing for exposing it.

3The king asked, "What honor or reward has Mordecai been given for this?" The king's servants who waited on him answered, "Nothing has been done for him."

3And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him.

4The king asked, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the palace, to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had set up for him.

4And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

NoteThe "gallows" translates a Hebrew word meaning simply a tree or a wooden pole. Persian practice was impalement, or hanging a body on a stake for public display, rather than hanging by the neck as the English word later came to mean. Earlier in the story its height is given as fifty cubits, roughly seventy-five feet, a structure meant to be seen across the city. Haman waits in the outer court because no one, however senior, approached this king unsummoned without risking death.

5The king's servants said to him, "Haman is standing there in the court." The king said, "Let him come in."

5And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.

6So Haman came in. The king said to him, "What should be done for the man the king is pleased to honor?" Haman thought to himself, "Who would the king want to honor more than me?"

6So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?

7So Haman answered the king, "For the man the king is pleased to honor,

7And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour,

8have them bring a royal robe that the king himself has worn, and a horse that the king himself has ridden, with the royal crown set on his head.

8Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:

NoteHaman is asking for the king's own robe and the king's own mount, objects that carried the king's person with them, so that whoever wore or rode them was displaying royal standing. The Hebrew of the last phrase leaves it unclear whose head the royal crown sits on: it may mean the honored man wears the royal headdress, or that the horse wears a royal crest on its head, an ornament Persian art shows on royal horses.

9Then let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble officials. Let them dress the man the king wants to honor, lead him on horseback through the city square, and call out ahead of him, 'This is what is done for the man the king is pleased to honor.'"

9And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour.

10Then the king said to Haman, "Hurry. Take the robe and the horse, just as you have said, and do all of this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Leave out nothing that you have said."

10Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.

Note"The king's gate" is the gateway building of the palace complex, where royal officials sat to transact business and hear cases. Mordecai sitting there marks him as holding a post at court. The king calls him "the Jew" without any sign of connecting him to the decree against the Jews that he had already let Haman issue.

11So Haman took the robe and the horse, dressed Mordecai, led him on horseback through the city square, and called out ahead of him, "This is what is done for the man the king is pleased to honor."

11Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.

12Then Mordecai went back to the king's gate. But Haman hurried home, grieving, with his head covered.

12And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered.

NoteCovering the head was a recognized public sign of grief and humiliation in the ancient Near East, in the same family of gestures as tearing one's clothes or putting dust on one's head. It announced the wearer's state to anyone who saw him.

13Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, "Since Mordecai, before whom your fall has begun, is a Jew, you will not win against him. You will surely fall before him."

13And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.

NoteHaman is introduced earlier in the book as "the Agagite," a title traditionally linked to Agag, king of the Amalekites, a people at long-running war with Israel. The advisers' remark assumes that history. "Seed of the Jews" in the King James Version means descent or ancestry, not offspring. The "wise men" are professional counselors of the sort Persian nobles kept in their households, the same friends who, in the previous chapter, advised him to build the pole.

14While they were still talking with him, the king's officers arrived and hurried Haman off to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

14And while they were yet talking with him, came the king’s chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.

NoteThe same class of court officials as in verse 2. The banquet is the second of the two Esther arranged; at the first she asked only that the king and Haman come again the following day.