Esther 3:1-6

Common English Bible

Haman plans to destroy Mordecai

3 Sometime later, King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, Hammedatha the Agagite’s son,^[a] by promoting him above all the officials who worked with him. ² All the royal workers at the King’s Gate would kneel and bow facedown to Haman because the king had so ordered. But Mordecai didn’t kneel or bow down. ³ So the royal workers at the King’s Gate said to Mordecai, “Why don’t you obey the king’s order?” ⁴ Day after day they questioned him, but he paid no attention to them. So they let Haman know about it just to see whether or not Mordecai’s words would hold true.^[b] (He had told them that he was a Jew.) ⁵ When Haman himself saw that Mordecai didn’t kneel or bow down to him, he became very angry. ⁶ But he decided not to kill only Mordecai, for people had told him Mordecai’s race. Instead, he planned to wipe out all the Jews, Mordecai’s people, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.