This is the second half of the book of Esther, picking up where Part One (Esther 1-4) left off. There, a Jewish woman named Esther had become queen of Persia, her cousin Mordecai had uncovered a plot against the king, and the powerful official Haman had persuaded King Ahasuerus to order the destruction of all the Jews. Mordecai urged Esther to plead for her people, and she resolved to go before the king uninvited — a crime that could cost her life — saying, “if I perish, I perish.”
Esther 5-9 tells what happened when she stepped into the throne room. It is a story of quiet courage and startling reversal: a golden scepter held out in mercy, two carefully timed banquets, a king who cannot sleep, and a gallows that ends up serving a purpose its builder never intended. By the end, the day meant for the Jews’ destruction becomes a day of deliverance, remembered every year in the feast of Purim.
The Story of Esther (Part Two)
On the third day Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the king’s house. When Ahasuerus saw her, she found favor in his sight, and he held out to her the golden scepter. Esther drew near and touched the top of it. The king offered her anything, even to half his kingdom, but she asked only that he and Haman come that day to a banquet she had prepared. At the banquet the king pressed her again for her request, and Esther asked instead that both men return the next day to a second banquet, promising to answer then.
Haman left that first banquet joyful, proud to have been the queen’s only guest. But when he passed Mordecai at the king’s gate and saw that Mordecai would not rise or tremble before him, he was filled with fury. At home he boasted to his wife Zeresh and his friends of his riches and honors, yet admitted that all of it meant nothing while Mordecai sat unbowed. On their advice, Haman had a gallows built fifty cubits high, planning to ask the king in the morning to hang Mordecai on it.
That same night the king could not sleep, so he commanded that the book of records of the chronicles be read before him. There it was found that Mordecai had once exposed a plot by two of the king’s servants to assassinate him, and that nothing had ever been done to reward him. Just then Haman arrived in the court to request Mordecai’s death. Before he could speak, the king asked him what should be done for the man the king delighted to honor. Certain the king meant him, Haman described a lavish parade: royal robes, the king’s own horse, and a noble prince to lead the man through the city.
The king ordered Haman to do exactly that for Mordecai the Jew, letting nothing fail of all he had spoken. Haman was forced to array his enemy in royal robes, set him on the king’s horse, and lead him through the streets, crying out, “Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.” Humiliated, Haman hurried home mourning. His wife and advisers warned him that if Mordecai was of the seed of the Jews, Haman would surely fall before him. While they were still speaking, the king’s servants came to bring him to Esther’s second banquet.
At the second banquet the king again asked Esther her petition. This time she pleaded for her own life and the life of her people, revealing that they had been sold to be destroyed and slain. When the king demanded to know who would dare do such a thing, Esther pointed to Haman: “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” Terrified, Haman was left alone with the queen as the king went out in wrath into the garden. Returning, Ahasuerus found Haman fallen on Esther’s couch to beg for mercy and took it as an assault. A servant named Harbonah mentioned the gallows Haman had built for Mordecai, and the king ordered Haman hanged on it. So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.
Haman was dead, but the decree against the Jews still stood, and by Persian law the king’s sealed order could not be revoked. So the king gave Haman’s house to Esther, handed his signet ring to Mordecai, and authorized a second decree. This new order granted the Jews in every city the right to gather and defend themselves, to stand for their lives against any who attacked them. Riders carried the letters throughout the empire, and Mordecai went out in royal blue and white with a great crown of gold, while the city of Shushan rejoiced.
When the appointed day came, the situation was turned to the opposite of what the Jews’ enemies had hoped. The Jews gathered in their cities, and no one could stand against them, for fear of them and of Mordecai had fallen on the people. They defeated those who sought their harm, including the ten sons of Haman. After the fighting, the Jews rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Mordecai and Esther wrote to establish these days as a yearly celebration called Purim, a lasting memorial of how their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a good day.
Key Verses
“The king held out to Esther the golden scepter” Esther 5:2
“Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high” Esther 5:14
“Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour.” Esther 6:11
“So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.” Esther 7:10
“From sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day” Esther 9:22
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.
What the Story of Esther (Part Two) Teaches Us
The heart of these chapters is reversal. Haman rises to the top only to be undone by the very schemes he set in motion, while Mordecai, overlooked and unrewarded, is honored at the exact moment his enemy meant to destroy him. The gallows built for one man ends up serving the other. The account presents these turns of events without spelling out a formula, but the pattern of pride collapsing and quiet faithfulness being lifted up runs through the whole story.
Esther’s courage is deliberate, not reckless. She approaches the king carefully, waits through two banquets, and chooses her moment before naming Haman. The book never mentions God directly, yet the timing throughout — the sleepless night, the chronicle opened to the right page, the enemy arriving just as the king needs an answer — invites readers to see a providence working behind ordinary events.
The chapters end not in vengeance for its own sake but in remembrance. Purim exists so that later generations would recall a moment when a people marked for destruction were instead delivered. It ties the story to gratitude, shared meals, and gifts to the poor, framing survival as something to be commemorated together rather than simply survived.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Esther hold two banquets instead of asking the king right away?
The text does not explain her reasoning directly. What it shows is that she waited, invited both the king and Haman twice, and revealed her request only at the second banquet, after the king had again promised to grant it. The delay gave time for events to unfold, including the king’s sleepless night and Mordecai’s public honor.
What was the gallows fifty cubits high?
Fifty cubits is roughly seventy-five feet. Haman built this tall gallows at his home, on the advice of his wife and friends, intending to ask the king to hang Mordecai on it. In the end Haman himself was hanged on it, and later his ten sons were hanged as well.
Why couldn’t the king simply cancel the decree against the Jews?
Under Persian law, a decree written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring could not be reversed. Instead of canceling the first order, the king authorized a second decree allowing the Jews to gather and defend themselves on the day set for their destruction.
What is Purim and how did it begin?
Purim is the yearly feast established by Mordecai and Esther to remember the Jews’ deliverance. Its name comes from Pur, the lot Haman cast to choose the day for their destruction. It is kept on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar with feasting, joy, sending portions of food to one another, and gifts to the poor.
Does the book of Esther mention God?
No. The book of Esther never names God directly. Many readers notice that the timing of events throughout the story points to a hidden providence at work, but the narrative itself keeps to human actions and outcomes.