Chapter 6

¹On that night the king couldn’t sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. ²It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, of those who kept the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. ³The king said, What honor and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this? Then the king’s servants who ministered to him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”

⁴The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman was 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 honor? Now Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? ⁷Haman said to the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor, 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 crown royal 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 array the man therewith whom the king delights to honor, 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 honor. ¹⁰Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate: let nothing fail of all that you have spoken. ¹¹Then took Haman the clothing and the horse, and arrayed 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 honor. 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, came the king’s chamberlains, and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.