CHAPTER 6

¹That night the king could not sleep, and he ordered to bring the annals, the Book of Acts, and that they be read to the king. ²And he found it written that Mordecai had told about Bigetha and Theresh, the two eunuchs of the king, the guardians of the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. ³And the king said, “What honor and grandeur were done for Mordecai on account of this?” And the king’s lads, his attendants, said, “Nothing was done for him.” ⁴And the king said, “Who is in the court?” And Haman had come into the outer court in the king’s house to say to the king to impale Mordecai on the stake that he had readied for him. ⁵And the king’s lads said to him, “Look, Haman is standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” ⁶And Haman came, and the king said to him, “What should be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?” And Haman said in his heart, “To whom would the king desire to do honor more than to me?” ⁷And Haman said to the king, “The man whom the king desires to honor, ⁸let them bring royal raiment that the king has worn and a horse on which the king has ridden, and set a royal crown on his head, ⁹and give the raiment and the horse into the hands of a man of the king’s nobles, the courtiers, and let them dress the man whom the king desires to honor and ride him on the horse through the city square and call out before him, ‘Thus shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.’” ¹⁰And the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the raiment and the horse as you have spoken, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting in the king’s gate. Omit nothing from all you have spoken.” ¹¹And Haman took the raiment and the horse and dressed Mordecai and rode him on the horse through the city square and called out before him, “Thus shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.” ¹²And Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, and Haman was thrust back to his house, mournful and distraught. ¹³And Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and to all his friends what had befallen him. And his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews, before whom you have begun to fall, you shall not prevail over him but you shall surely fall before him.” ¹⁴While they were still speaking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.