Esther 5:8-14

8 If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I'll give a straight answer to the king's question."

9 Haman left the palace that day happy, beaming. And then he saw Mordecai sitting at the King's Gate ignoring him, oblivious to him. Haman was furious with Mordecai.

10 But he held himself in and went on home. He got his friends together with his wife Zeresh

11 and started bragging about how much money he had, his many sons, all the times the king had honored him, and his promotion to the highest position in the government.

12 "On top of all that," Haman continued, "Queen Esther invited me to a private dinner she gave for the king, just the three of us. And she's invited me to another one tomorrow.

13 But I can't enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King's Gate."

14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said, "Build a gallows seventy-five feet high. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner." Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.

Esther 5:8-14 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ESTHER 5

This chapter gives an account of Esther's going in to the king, and of his holding out the golden sceptre to her, on which she invited him and Haman to a banquet of wine that day, and to another the next day, Es 5:1-8, which highly delighted Haman; and he went to his house and family with great joy, and yet chagrined at Mordecai's not bowing to him; wherefore, at the advice of his wife and friends, he erected a gallows to hang him upon, proposing to get a grant for it from the king the next day, Es 5:9-14.