Esther 6
v.1
That night the king could not sleep; so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him.
In the book of Esther, circumstance is a powerful literary motif. While men such as Haman try to harness circumstance to their advantage through schemes and omens, the Jewish audience would have seen circumstance as being in the hands of God who works behind the scenes. Of interest, then, are the words that Herodotus places in the mouth of Artabanus, an adviser to Xerxes, on the threshold of what will become a disastrous Greek campaign: “Men are at the mercy of circumstance, which never bends to human will.” Haman is about to learn the same lesson.
v.11
So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor!“
v.13
and told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His advisors and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him—you will surely come to ruin!”
Haman told his wife and friends all the details of his humiliating experience. If he expected comfort from them, he did not receive it. Instead they, seeing the handwriting on the wall, warned Haman that the Jew had been responsible from the beginning of his downfall.