Haman said moreover, “Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to-morrow am I invited unto her also with the king.

“Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

Then said his wife and all his friends, “Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to-morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon; then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet.”  And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.

VI

On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.

And it was found written therein that Mordecai had told of the two keepers of the door who had sought to lay hand on King Ahasuerus.

And the king said, “What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?”

Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, “There is nothing done for him.”

And the king said, “Who is in the court?”

Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

And the king’s servants said unto Ahasuerus, “Behold, Haman standeth in the court.”

And the king said, “Let him come in.”

So Haman came in.  And the king said unto him, “What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?”

Now Haman thought in his heart, “To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?” And Haman answered the king, “For the man whom the king delighteth to honour, let the royal apparel be brought which the king weareth, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head.  And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour.’”

Then the king said to Haman, “Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king’s gate; let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.”

Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.”

And Mordecai came again to the king’s gate.  But Haman hasted to his house, mourning, and having his head covered.

And Haman told his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him.

Then said his wise men and his wife, “If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.”