Ester 6

BLIVRE · Chapter 6/10

¹Naquela noite o rei perdeu o sono. Então ele mandou trazer o livro das memórias das crônicas: e elas foram lidas na presença do rei.

²E achou-se escrito que Mardoqueu havia denunciado Bigtã e de Teres, dois eunucos do rei, da guarda da porta, que tinham procurado matar o rei Assuero.

³Então o rei disse: Que honra e que condecoração se fez a Mardoqueu por isto? E os servos do rei que o serviam disseram: Nada foi feito com ele.

⁴Então o rei disse: Quem está no pátio? (Pois Hamã tinha vindo ao pátio de fora da casa do rei, para dizer ao rei que enforcassem a Mardoqueu na forca que tinha preparado para ele).

⁵E os servos do rei lhe responderam: Eis que Hamã está no pátio. E o rei mandou que ele entrasse.

⁶Quando Hamã entrou, o rei lhe perguntou: Que se fará ao homem a quem rei deseja honrar? Então Hamã pensou em seu coração: A quem o rei desejará mais dar honra que a mim?

⁷Por isso Hamã respondeu ao rei: Ao homem a quem o rei deseja honrar,

⁸Tragam o vestido real de que o rei costuma se vestir, o cavalo em que o rei costuma cavalgar, e ponha-se a coroa real sobre sua cabeça.

⁹E entregue-se o vestido e o cavalo na mão de um dos mais importantes príncipes do rei, e vistam a tal homem a quem o rei deseja honrar, e levem-no a cavalo pelas ruas da cidade, e proclamem diante dele: Assim se fará ao homem a quem o rei deseja honrar!

¹⁰Então o rei disse a Hamã: Apressa-te, toma o vestido e o cavalo, como disseste, e faze assim para com o judeu Mardoqueu, que se senta à porta do rei; não omitas coisa alguma de tudo quanto disseste.

¹¹E Hamã tomou o vestido e o cavalo, e vestiu a Mardoqueu; e o levou a cavalo pelas ruas da cidade, e proclamou diante dele: Assim se fará ao homem a quem o rei deseja honrar!

¹²Depois disto Mardoqueu voltou à porta do rei. Porém Hamã se retirou correndo para sua casa, aborrecido, e com sua cabeça coberta.

¹³E Hamã contou a sua mulher Zeres e a todos seus amigos tudo o que tinha lhe acontecido; então seus sábios e sua mulher Zeres lhe disseram: Se Mardoqueu, diante de quem começaste a cair, é da semente dos judeus, tu não prevalecerás contra ele; ao contrário, certamente cairás diante dele.

¹⁴Enquanto eles ainda estavam falando com ele, os eunucos do rei chegaram, apressados, para levarem Hamã ao banquete que Ester havia preparado.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

On a sleepless night, the king has the records of the kingdom read to him and discovers that he never rewarded Mordecai for reporting a plot against his life. Ironically, it is Haman himself who ends up being forced to publicly honor his enemy.

Explanation

This chapter is one of the most remarkable examples of dramatic irony in the entire Bible. On the very night before the day Haman planned to ask for Mordecai's death on the newly built gallows, the king is unable to sleep and, by chance, rediscovers Mordecai's forgotten act of loyalty. When he asks Haman how to honor 'the man whom the king delights to honor,' Haman assumes, out of vanity, that he himself is meant, and suggests an extravagant honor—which ends up being applied, to his total humiliation, to Mordecai himself. Even with no explicit mention of God, the sequence of 'coincidences' in this chapter is the heart of the book's theological message: divine providence working silently through the details of everyday life.

Fun facts

The 'book of the chronicles' the king has read to him were detailed official records kept by Persian kings, an administrative practice well documented historically in other sources from that empire.
The reversal in which Haman is forced to publicly honor Mordecai, his greatest enemy, is considered by literary scholars one of the most perfect examples of dramatic irony in all of ancient literature.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Ester 6:1That night, sleep escapes the king, and he orders the chronicles of the kingdom to be read, thereby rediscovering that Mordecai, some time before, had reported a conspiracy against his life and had never been rewarded for it. It is a coincidence of insomnia that changes the course of the entire story.
Ester 6:2It is precisely in this random reading of the chronicles that the king rediscovers Mordecai’s warning about the conspiracy against his life, recorded back in chapter 2.
Ester 6:3The king realizes Mordecai was never rewarded for saving his life, a forgotten detail that will produce one of the greatest ironies in the book.
Ester 6:4By sheer coincidence of timing, Haman is arriving at the palace at that very moment, ready to ask for Mordecai’s execution.
Ester 6:5The king calls Haman in, unaware that the real reason for his visit was to request the death of the very man the king wanted to honor.
Ester 6:6Haman, with no idea the king was thinking of Mordecai, vainly assumes the question could only be about himself.
Ester 6:7Driven by this proud assumption, Haman begins to describe the most extravagant honor he can imagine, unknowingly meant for himself.
Ester 6:8Haman suggests an almost royal honor: wearing the king’s own robes, riding the king’s own horse, and even wearing a symbol of the crown, all the while thinking of himself.
Ester 6:9He even proposes that one of the most important princes lead the horse through the streets, publicly proclaiming the honor, imagining, of course, that he himself would be the one honored.
Ester 6:10The king’s answer is the most ironic shock in the book: he orders Haman to do exactly all of that, but for Mordecai, the very man he had just been planning to hang.
Ester 6:11Thinking the honor the king wanted to grant was for himself, Haman ends up having to dress Mordecai in the royal robes and lead him on horseback through the streets, proclaiming his honor aloud. It is an ironic twist: Haman himself becomes the instrument for glorifying the very man he wanted dead.
Ester 6:12After parading Mordecai through the streets as ordered, Haman returns home humiliated, covering his head, a traditional gesture of shame and mourning.
Ester 6:13This time even Haman’s wife and friends admit that his luck is turning, predicting he will not be able to defeat Mordecai because Mordecai is a Jew.
Ester 6:14In the middle of this discouraging conversation, the king’s chamberlains already arrive to fetch Haman, giving him no time to fully process what his friends had just said.