Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and caused him to ride through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, 'Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor.'"

And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his house, mourning and having his head covered. And Haman recounted unto Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had befallen him.

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

While they were yet talking with him, came the king's chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman unto the banquet that Esther had prepared.

So the king and Haman came to the banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, "What is thy petition, Queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed."

Then Esther the queen answered and said, "If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king's damage."

[{73}]

Then spoke the king Ahasuerus and said to Esther the queen, "Who is he, and where is he, that dares presume in his heart to do so?"

And Esther said, "An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman."

Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.