When Esther comes before the king and waits silently, he hold out his golden scepter to her and invites her to speak: "when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre. Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, queen Esther? and what is thy request? it shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom. And Esther answered, If it seem good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day unto the banquet that I have prepared for him. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther hath said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed. Then answered Esther, and said, My petition and my request is: If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king hath said: (Esther 5:2-5:8). Haman returns to his home, pleased with this sign of favor, his good mood spoiled only by the sight of Mordecai: "Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made" (Esther 5:14). Meanwhile the king, sleepless with anticipation, calls for the great chronicle of his reign, and discovers that Mordecai has not yet been rewarded for saving his life. He calls for Haman: "On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, There is nothing done for him. And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman was come into the outward court of the king’s house, to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman standeth in the court. And the king said, Let him come in. So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself? And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour, Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head: And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour" (Esther 6:1-6).

Philips Galle (Antwerp, 1537-1612), Ahasuerus consulting Haman (The Illustrated Bartsch 5601.017:7 i/iii). Engraving after Maerten van Heemskerck, 1564. Very good impression on laid paper with thread margins. Plate 7 of The Story of Esther. Inscribed: "Hee. In." (on stairs leading to the right). Trimmed on or within the platemark. First published by Hieronymous Cock in 1564. This series proved very popular and two additional printings were made. Image size:201x246mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

In the denouement, all of Haman's plots rebound upon his head. The honors he dreamed of for himself are done to Mordecai, the gibbet he had built for Mordeci's hanging ends up being used to send him from this world, the slaughter he had planned to inflict upon the Jews is visited instead upon all of his followers, and the celebrations he had expected to follow his vctories are replaced by an annual festival: "Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another. And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them; Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year; And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed. Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim. And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry. And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book. (Esther 9:19--9:32).

Hans (Jan) Collaert (Antwerp, 1566-1628), Hester (New Holl. de Vos 240 ii/ii). Engraving after Marten de Vos, c. 1581. Plate 18 from a set of Celebrated Women of the Old Testament consisting of twenty engravings (plus frontispiece) by Hans or Adrien Collaert and Carel van Mallery published in Antwerp by Phillip Galle (1537-1612). Ahasuerus, King of Persia, puts aside his wife Vashti because she refuses to come when he sends for her (his council think that such disobedience unpunished wouled lead all wives to act the same way with their husbands) and seeks a new wife, choosing the beautiful Esther, niece of Mordecai. Mordecai learns of a plot to kill the king and through Esther warns the king who is saved as a consequence. Shortly afterwards one of the King's nobles, Haman, becomes offended with Mordecai, who refuses to prostrate himself before Haman, and seeks for his life and the lives of all Jews since Mordecai is a Jew. Esther, following Mordecai's advice, had never informed her husband of her religion. Now, coming uninvited into his presence (for which the penalty is death), she invites him to dinner and pleads for her life and the life of her people. Haman, who had built a 75-foot tall gallows on which he had planned to hang Mordecai, finds himself hung there instead, and Mordecai, for saving the King's life, gets Haman's office. Through her disobedience, Esther saves her people. Image size: 154x88mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

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