Mordecai Is Honored
When the king cannot sleep, the royal chronicles are read to him, and the record of Mordecai exposing the assassination plot is found. The king then learns that no honor or dignity has yet been given for that act.
T1hat night sleep escaped the king; so he ordered the Book of Records, the Chronicles, to be brought in and read to him. 2And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. 3The king inquired, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this act?”
The king asks who is in the court, and Haman is there to ask for Mordecai's hanging. Instead, he is brought in and asked what should be done for the man the king delights to honor, and he assumes the question is about himself.
4“Who is in the court?” the king asked. 5Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared for him. So the king’s attendants answered him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” 6Haman entered, and the king asked him, “What should be done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor?”
Thinking of his own advancement, Haman describes an elaborate public honor: a royal robe, a royal horse, and proclamation through the city square by one of the king's most noble princes.
7And Haman told the king, “For the man whom the king is delighted to honor, 8have them bring a royal robe that the king himself has worn and a horse on which the king himself has ridden— one with a royal crest placed on its head. 9Let the robe and the horse be entrusted to one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them array the man the king wants to honor and parade him on the horse through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor!’”
The king orders Haman to do exactly that for Mordecai the Jew at the king's gate, leaving nothing out. Haman obeys, leads Mordecai through the square with the public proclamation, and afterward Mordecai returns to the gate while Haman rushes home in grief.
10“Hurry,” said the king to Haman, “and do just as you proposed. Take the robe and the horse to Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting at the king’s gate. Do not neglect anything that you have suggested.” 11So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai, and paraded him through the city square, crying out before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor!” 12Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief.
When Haman tells Zeresh and his advisers what has happened, they warn that if Mordecai is Jewish, Haman's downfall has already begun and he will not prevail. Before the conversation is finished, the king's eunuchs arrive and hurry him to Esther's banquet.
13Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is Jewish, you will not prevail against him — for surely you will fall before him.” 14While they were still speaking with Haman, the king’s eunuchs arrived and rushed him to the banquet that Esther had prepared.