Scripture Thought (What I Learned):
Chapter 5: The King Recieves Esther
On the third day
that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner
court of the king’s palace, across from the king’s house, while the king sat on
his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house. So it
was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, which she
found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter
that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of
the scepter. And the king said to her, “What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your
request? It shall be given to you; up to half the kingdom!” So Esther answered,
“If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that
I have prepared for him.” Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, that he may
do as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther
had prepared.
At the banquet of wine the king
said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your
request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!” Then Esther answered and
said, “My petition and request is this: If I have found favor in the
sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill
my request, then let the king and Haman come to the banquet which I will
prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.”
Haman
went out that day joyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in
the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled
with indignation against Mordecai. Nevertheless Haman restrained himself and
went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh. Then
Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything
in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the
officials and servants of the king. Moreover Haman said, “Besides, Queen Esther
invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she
prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her, along with the king. Yet all
this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s
gate.”
His wife Zeresh and all his friends
said to him, “Let a gallows be made, fifty cubits high, and in the
morning suggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with
the king to the banquet.” And the thing pleased Haman; so he had the gallows
made.
Chapter 6: Mordecai Recieves Great Honors
That night the king could not
sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles;
and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai had
told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had
sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. Then the king said, “What honor or
dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” And the king’s servants who
attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
The
king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered
the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on
the gallows that he had prepared for him. The king’s servants said to him,
“Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.”
Haman
came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king
delights to honor?” Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king
delight to honor more than me?”
Haman
answered the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, let
a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king
has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. Then let this robe and
horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes,
that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him
on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it
be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’“
The
king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested,
and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing
undone of all that you have spoken.” So Haman took the robe and the horse,
arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, and
proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights
to
Afterward Mordecai went back to the
king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head
covered. When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that
had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If
Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will
not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.” While they were still
talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hastened to bring Haman to the
banquet which Esther had prepared.
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