Esther 3:1-6

International Standard Version

Haman is Promoted by Ahasuerus

3 Sometime later King Ahasuerus promoted Hammedatha the Agagite’s son Haman, elevating him to a position above^[a] all the other officials who were with him. ² All the king’s ministers^[b] who were in the king’s gate would kneel and bow down to Haman, because the king had commanded that Haman^[c] be honored in this way. Mordecai, however, would not kneel and would not bow down.

³ The king’s ministers^[d] who were in the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why are you disobeying the king’s command?” ⁴ They asked him this day after day, and he would not listen to them, so they told Haman to see whether or not Mordecai would get away with his disobedience,^[e] since he also had told them that he was Jewish. ⁵ When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel and bow down to him, he^[f] flew into a rage. ⁶ Because they had told him who the people of Mordecai were, Haman^[g] found it unacceptable^[h] to kill^[i] only Mordecai. So Haman sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jewish people, who were in all the kingdom of Ahasuerus.