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¹ ON that night the king could not sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read be fore the king.² And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthan and Teresh, two of the kings eunuchs, the keepers of the door, who had sought to lay hands on King Akhshirash.³ And the king said, What honor and dignity have been conferred upon Mordecai for this? Then the kings servants and his ministers said to him, There is nothing done for him.

⁴ And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the outer court of the kings house to speak to the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.⁵ So the kings servants said to him, Behold, Haman is standing in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.⁶ So Haman came in. And the king said to him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, Whom would the king delight to honor more than myself?⁷ And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delights to honor,⁸ Let the royal apparel be brought which the king wears and the horse that the king rides, and let the royal crown be set upon his head:⁹ And let the apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the kings most noble princes, and let him array the man whom the king delights to honor and mount him on the horse and take him round through the streets of the city and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king de lights to honor.¹⁰ Then the king said to Haman, Make haste and take the apparel and the horse, as you have said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the kings gate; let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.¹¹ Then Haman took the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the streets of the city and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.

¹² And Mordecai came again to the kings gate. But Haman went to his house mourning and having his head covered.¹³ And Haman told Zeresh his wife everything that had befallen him. Then his friends and Zeresh his wife said to him, If Mordecai is of the Jewish race, before whom you have begun to fall, you shall not prevail against him, but will surely again be humbled before him.¹⁴ And while he was still talking with them, the kings couriers arrived and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had pre pared.