The Return · c. 474 BC
Chapter 12
Esther Before the King
So 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, “Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?”
For parents
This chapter tells how Haman has a gallows built to hang Mordecai on (Esther 5:14), and how, at the king’s order, Haman himself is hanged on it (7:9–10). When the king finds Haman fallen on the couch where Queen Esther is, he accuses him of trying to force himself on her (7:8). It also recalls the order to kill all the Jews on one day (3:13); none of it is described in detail.
An order had gone out to every province in the name of King , sealed with his ring. It said that all the Jews, young and old, little children and women, were to be killed on the thirteenth day of , the twelfth month. It was ’s doing. He had asked the king for an order to destroy them, and he had promised to pay ten thousand of silver, about 330 tons, into the king’s treasuries. And had sent a copy of the order and urged her to go to the king and plead for her people.
Everyone knew the law: any man or woman who went in to the king’s inner court without being called was put to death, unless the king held out his golden to let them live. The king had not called for Esther in thirty days. Then she had sent this message to Mordecai: “Gather all the Jews in , and for me. For three days, night and day, take no food or drink. I will fast the same way, with my maids. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” And Mordecai did everything she told him.
On the third day, when she had finished praying, Esther took off the dress of a servant and put on her royal robes. Splendidly dressed, she called on God, who watches over all things and keeps them safe. Then she took her two maids with her. She leaned on one of them, as a delicate woman would, and the other followed behind, carrying the train of her gown. She was at the height of her beauty. Her face looked cheerful and lovely, but her heart was full of fear.
She went through all the doors into the inner court of the palace and stood before the king. He was sitting on his royal throne, dressed in all his royal robes and covered all over with gold and precious stones. He was terrifying to see. He raised his face, shining with glory, and glared with intense anger.
The queen fell. Her face changed color as she fainted, and she sank down onto the head of the maid walking ahead of her. But God changed the king’s spirit and made him gentle. Deeply moved, he sprang down from his throne and took her into his arms until she recovered.
He comforted her with words of peace. “What’s the matter, Esther?” he said. “I am your relative. Take heart! You will not die, because our order to you is plain: ‘Come near.’”
He raised the golden scepter, laid it on her neck, and embraced her. “Speak to me,” he said.
“My lord,” she said to him, “to me you looked like an angel of God. My heart was troubled, and I was afraid of your glory, because you, my lord, are a wonder, and your face is full of grace.”
While she was speaking, she fainted and fell. The king was troubled, and all his servants comforted her.
Then the king asked her, “What would you like, Queen Esther? What is your request? You will have it, even if it is half the kingdom.”
“If it pleases the king,” said Esther, “I have prepared a banquet for him. Let the king and Haman come to it today.”
“Bring Haman quickly,” said the king, “so we can do as Esther says.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet Esther had prepared.
As they drank wine, the king said to Esther, “What do you ask for? You will have it. What is your request? Even if it is half the kingdom, it will be done.”
Esther answered, “This is what I ask for, and this is my request. If I have the king’s favor, and if the king is pleased to give me what I ask and do what I request, let the king and Haman come to one more banquet that I will make ready for them. Then tomorrow I will do what the king has said.”
That day Haman went out full of joy, his heart glad. But at the king’s gate he saw Mordecai, who didn’t stand up or move for him, and Haman was filled with rage against Mordecai.
Still, Haman held himself back and went home. There he called in his friends and his wife, . He told them how rich and splendid he was, how many children he had, every way the king had promoted him, and how the king had raised him above his nobles and officials.
Haman went on, “When Queen Esther gave her banquet, I was the only one she let come in with the king. And tomorrow she has invited me again, together with the king. Yet none of this does me any good while I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Have a made, fifty high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then you can go in with the king to the banquet and be glad.” Haman liked the idea, and he had the gallows built, about seventy-five feet tall.
That night the king couldn’t sleep. He ordered the book of records to be brought in and read to him. It was the book where the events of his reign were written down.
In it was written how Mordecai had reported and , two of the king’s who kept watch at the doors, when they tried to attack King Ahasuerus.
“What honor, what high rank, has Mordecai been given for this?” asked the king.
The servants who waited on the king answered, “Nothing has been done for him.”
“Who is in the court?” the king asked. Just then Haman had come into the outer court of the palace. He had come to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had set up for him.
“Haman is standing in the court,” the king’s servants told him.
“Let him come in,” said the king.
Haman came in. “What should be done,” the king asked him, “for the man whom the king delights to honor?”
Haman said to himself, “Who would the king want to honor more than me?”
Haman told the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, send for royal clothes that the king himself wears, and the horse the king rides, one with a royal crown on its head. Hand the clothes and the horse to one of the king’s highest nobles, and have them put the clothes on the man whom the king delights to honor. Have him ride on horseback through the city square, and let them call out in front of him, ‘This is what the king does for the man he delights to honor!’”
Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and take the clothes and the horse, as you have said, and do all this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Don’t leave out a single thing you have said.”
So Haman took the clothes and the horse. He dressed Mordecai in the clothes, had him ride through the city square, and called out in front of him, “This is what the king does for the man he delights to honor!”
Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried home, mourning, with his head covered.
He told his wife Zeresh and all his friends the whole story. His wise men and Zeresh answered, “You have begun to fall before Mordecai. If he is Jewish by birth, you won’t win against him. You will surely fall before him.”
They were still talking with him when the king’s eunuchs came and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet Esther had made ready.
So the king and Haman came to dine with Queen Esther. On this second day, as they drank wine at the banquet, the king asked Esther again, “What do you ask for, Queen Esther? You will have it. What is your request? Even if it is half the kingdom, it will be done.”
Then Queen Esther answered, “If you look on me with favor, O king, and if it seems good to the king, let me live. That is what I ask. And let my people live. That is my request. We have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, to perish. If we had only been sold to be slaves, men and women alike, I would have said nothing, though even then the enemy could not have made up for the king’s loss.”
“Who is he?” King Ahasuerus asked Queen Esther. “Where is this man who has dared to plan such a thing?”
“An adversary and an enemy,” said Esther. “This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was filled with fear before the king and the queen.
In his fury the king got up, left his wine, and went into the palace garden. Haman stood up to plead with Queen Esther for his life, since he could see that the king had made up his mind to harm him.
Then the king came back from the palace garden into the room where they had been drinking wine. Haman had fallen on the couch where Esther was. The king said, “Will he even force himself on the queen, with me looking on, here in the palace?” The words were hardly out of the king’s mouth when they covered Haman’s face.
Then , one of the eunuchs waiting on the king, said, “Look, Haman made a gallows for Mordecai, the man who spoke up for the king. It is standing at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.”
The king said, “Hang him on it!”
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. And the king’s anger cooled.