(9) В¶ Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai. (10) Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife. (11) And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. (12) Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow am I invited unto her also with the king. (13) Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.
The sacred historian hath drawn the portrait of this man in a short compass to a full length painting, and of the most finished kind, in a description of misery. He confesses, in the midst of all the possessions the highest rank in the court of eastern magnificence could afford, that such dreadful malignity rankled within, that the whole was nothing, so long as he saw a poor Jew whom he envied, sit without doing him reverence in the king's gate. Reader! pause over this, and remark how wretched must be the state of a man's heart, which is open to such dreadful corroding passions! how little to be esteemed then must be all outward things, when a profusion of them cannot ensure happiness. And above all think, I charge you, how infinitely precious must be that blessed and only remedy, which the gospel of JESUS affords, for changing the heart, and curing such guilty passions.