Esther 3:1-6

International Children’s Bible

Haman Plans to Destroy the Jews

3 After these things happened, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite. He gave Haman a new rank that was higher than all the important men. ² And all the royal officers at the king’s gate would bow down and kneel before Haman. This was what the king had ordered. But Mordecai would not bow down, and he did not kneel.

³ Then the royal officers at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why don’t you obey the king’s command?” ⁴ And they said this to him every day. When he did not listen to them, they told Haman about it. They wanted to see if Haman would accept Mordecai’s behavior because Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew.

⁵ Then Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down to him or kneel before him. And he became very angry. ⁶ He had been told who the people of Mordecai were. And he thought of himself as too important to try to kill only Mordecai. So he looked for a way to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, in all of Xerxes’ kingdom.