Esther 5

Risking death by approaching the king unbidden, Esther finds favor; he extends the golden scepter and offers her up to half the kingdom. She does not yet make her request but invites the king and Haman to a banquet, and then to a second banquet the next day. Haman leaves elated by the honor, but the sight of Mordecai still refusing to bow poisons his joy; at his wife Zeresh’s suggestion, he builds a towering gallows on which to hang Mordecai the next morning.