6:1–3 At first glance, an apparently innocuous detail is given, seemingly irrelevant to the story: the king looks for some entertainment to pass a sleepless night. But when part of the night’s reading recounts Mordecai’s unrewarded act of bravery and loyalty on the king’s behalf, the reader sees the hand of God at work in another coincidence to save his people from their enemy. This helps show that, although Mordecai and Esther are at work in this situation, the outcome of the book is not simply a reward for their labors. They do not “cause” the victory—they are, indeed, barely involved in this chapter.

6:4 In a place as dangerous as the Persian court, the king understands it to be in his own interests to reward acts like Mordecai’s. Thus, after learning that nothing had been done to honor Mordecai, the king takes action immediately, asking if there is anyone nearby in the court to help him correct this oversight. In another perfect coincidence, Haman comes just at that moment to ask permission to hang the very man Ahasuerus now wants to honor. Again the reader cannot but see God’s hand at work in ordering these circumstances.

6:5–6 Ahasuerus, who never makes decisions for himself, asks the first person he sees how he should honor a particular person. The king probably thought it most opportune for his chief adviser to be present to give him the advice he sought. For his part, Haman continues his self-aggrandizing interpretation of recent events; whom else but the king’s second-in-command, the sole person invited to a private feast with the king and queen, could the king be seeking to honor? Haman probably saw here a further salve to his wounded pride (5:13). His interpretation of the king’s question lets his imagination run free to create whatever recompense he wants.

6:7–9 In commenting on Haman’s self-pity in the last chapter, we asked what more Haman could possibly want in order to be happy. Here we learn Haman has just the scenario in mind to satisfy his boundless ego—for a time, at least. His request in verse 7 could actually be translated as a sentence fragment, as if he were savoring the thought as it came to him: “The man whom the king delights to honor—let them bring royal robes . . .” In asking to wear the king’s clothes, ride in his chariot, and wear his crown, Haman is asking to be treated like royalty—and to be officially recognized as such in the most public place in the capital of the empire (the city square; v. 9). There is no other promotion left for the king’s second-in-command.

6:10–12 In the first of a string of perfectly symmetrical reversals, Haman learns that instead of detailing the way he should be honored, he has described the way in which he will have to honor Mordecai—the very man for whose head he had come to ask. The phrase “Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate” is an exact echo from 5:13, used by Haman to describe the source of his unhappiness. What could have humbled Haman more perfectly or painfully than personally carrying out for his most hated enemy the extensive honors he had imagined for himself? No emotion is recorded from Mordecai or Haman—a silence that cannot help but prompt us to imagine the storm of rage and humiliation as Haman shouted Mordecai’s honor in the city square. On the other hand, Mordecai simply returns to the gate of the king when it is over (6:12)—that is, he returns to his place of work. He did not seek any reward when uncovering the plot at the end of chapter 2, and seems unaffected by it now.

Haman, by contrast, rushes home with his face covered (a sign of distress and grief in 2 Sam. 15:30; Jer. 14:3–4).3 For him, it is the beginning of the end.

6:13 Repeating his strategy from chapter 5, Haman turns to his wife and friends for advice. Mordecai’s Jewish descent weighs heavily on them: If Haman’s adversary were from any other people group, they imply, Haman might be able to win his way back. But somehow Haman’s wife and friends, although certainly no friends of the Jews, are convinced this is only the beginning of a downward spiral out of which Haman cannot pull himself.

Why these Persian Gentiles are so certain of Jewish success is not immediately clear (have they had enough contact with Persian Jews to notice a pattern?), but surely the narrator wants us to see again God’s hand at work in a way even the Jews’ enemies recognize, even if they do not know to whom to attribute this success. Mordecai’s Jewish identity is also now in the open. This is the first crack in Haman’s plan against the Jews: how can a man so signally honored by the king be executed?

6:14 In another perfectly timed irony, Haman has no time to ponder what this means as he hurries to Esther’s second feast. We can only wonder what was running through his mind as he made his way there.