¹² Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his [own] house, mourning and with his head covered [in sorrow]. ¹³ Then Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise counselors and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall in status, is of Jewish heritage, you will not overcome him, but will certainly fall before him.”

¹⁴ While they were still speaking with him, the king’s eunuchs (attendants) arrived and hurriedly brought Haman to the banquet which Esther had prepared.