this important service. He was told that the man had never received any reward. Then the king called for Aman, whom he asked what ought to be done to honour the man whom the king desired to honour.
Aman, supposing that there was question of himself, said that the man whom the king desired to honour ought to be clothed with the king’s apparel, and be set upon the king’s horse, and have the royal crown put upon his head, and that the first of the king’s princes and nobles should hold his horse, and, going through the streets of the city, they should proclaim before him: “Thus shall he be honoured, whom the king hath a mind to honour!”
Then the king said to him: “Make haste and take the robe and the horse, and do as thou hast spoken to Mardochai[1], the Jew, who sitteth before the gate of the palace.”
Aman was surprised and enraged to hear these words, but he dared not disobey the word of the king. He went, therefore, and did as he was ordered. Meanwhile the hour came for the queen’s banquet, and Aman went thither in all haste.
While they sat at the table the king said again to the queen : “What is thy petition, Esther, that it may be granted thee? Although thou ask the half of my kingdom thou shalt have it.” Esther replied: “If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, give me my life, for which I ask, and my people for which I request. For we are given up, I and my people[2], to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.”
The king, in surprise, asked: “Who is this, and of what power, that he should dare to do these things?” Esther answered: “It is Aman that is our most wicked enemy.” But Aman, hearing what the queen said, was seized with terror. The king arose from the table in great wrath. Being told by one of the attendants that Aman had prepared a gibbet fifty cubits high whereon to hang Mardochai, he ordered Aman himself to be hanged upon it.
- ↑ Do to Mardochai. This was a great humiliation for the proud man who had hitherto been the king’s favourite. He had reckoned on the certainty that the king would give him permission to hang Mardochai on the gallows he had already set up; and instead of this he was now forced to pay the utmost honour to the detested Jew !
- ↑ I and my people. By these words Esther revealed that she was a Jewess.
