Mordecai Is Honored
On that night the king’s sleep fled, and he said to bring the book of records, the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
And it was found written that Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, of the keepers of the threshold, who had sought to send a hand against King Ahasuerus.
And the king said, “What honor and greatness has been done for Mordecai for this?” And the king’s young men, those who served him, said, “Nothing has been done with him.”
And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come to the outer court of the king’s house, to say to the king to hang Mordecai on the tree that he had prepared for him.
And the king’s young men said to him, “Look, Haman is standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.”
And Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What is to be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?” And Haman said in his heart, “To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to me?”
And Haman said to the king, “A man whom the king delights to honor —
let them bring a royal garment that the king has worn, and a horse that the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been set.
And let the garment and the horse be given into the hand of a man of the king’s officials, the nobles; and let them clothe the man whom the king delights to honor, and let them mount him on the horse in the open square of the city, and call out before him, ‘Thus it is done for the man whom the king delights to honor.’”
And the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the garment and the horse, as you have spoken, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits in the king’s gate. Let nothing fall of all that you have spoken.”
And Haman took the garment and the horse, and clothed Mordecai, and mounted him in the open square of the city, and called out before him, “Thus it is done for the man whom the king delights to honor.”
And Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning, and with his head covered.
And Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and to all his friends everything that had met him. And his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the seed of the Jews, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him.”
They were still speaking with him when the king’s eunuchs arrived, and they hurried to bring Haman to the feast that Esther had made.