This episode opens as a sleepless King Ahasuerus has the royal chronicles read and discovers that Mordecai had exposed an assassination plot five years earlier yet received no reward; at that exact moment, Haman arrives to request Mordecai’s execution. The king instead asks Haman what should be done to recognize the man the king delights to honor. Assuming it is himself, Haman suggests the royal treatment, only to be commanded to do all of it for Mordecai. Humiliated, Haman obeys, before rushing home in deep mourning, where his wife and friends predict his certain demise, just as the king’s chamberlains arrive to escort him to Queen Esther’s second banquet—another stunning display of God’s veiled providence weaving natural events together for the Jews’ deliverance and Haman’s ruin.