HAMAN HANGED ON HIS OWN GALLOWS
(vv. 1-10)
At Esther's second banquet the king asked her to make whatever petition she desired, with the promise that he would grant it to her.What a surprise it would be to both the king and Haman that she asked that she and her people might be spared from total destruction! (v. 3)."For," she said, "we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king's loss" (v. 4). What astonishing words these would be to the king!Haman however would realize (with astonishment too) that Esther must be a Jewess, whose nation he plotted to destroy.
The king, not yet connecting Haman's recent edict with the Jewish nation, asked indignantly, "Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?" Esther's response was brief, but like a lightning bolt, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman!"(v. 6). The king was wise enough not to erupt in an outburst of anger toward Haman at the moment, but taking time to think in quietness, he went into the palace garden.Haman remained with Esther, pleading for his life, for he knew the king would not pass by an evil so great as he was guilty of (v. 7).When the king was composed sufficiently to return, he found Haman fallen across the couch where Esther was.Though he was no doubt mistaken in thinking that Haman intended to assault the queen, yet this appeared to him to be the case, and when he so spoke,the servants covered Haman's face (v. 8), for Hamanhad forfeited all title to see the light.
The situation was so electric that at that moment the king would be ready to act without hesitation, and immediately one servant took the opportunity to announce to the king that Haman had made a gallows on which he planned to hang Mordecai.This would increase the tension, and The king did not hesitate to command, "Hang him on it!" (v. 9).Thus the evil that Haman planned came back violently on his own head, as Ecclesiastes 10:8 warns, "He who digs a pit will fall into it."