¹² As Mordecai returned again to the king’s gate, Haman hurried to his house, mourning with his head covered. ¹³ Haman recounted to his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him.

Then his wise friends and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish lineage, then you will not be victorious over him. Rather, you will surely fall before him.” ¹⁴ While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and rushed Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.