Haman hated the Jews. He especially despised Mordecai because he refused to give Haman proper respect. So Haman convinced the king to send out a decree to destroy all the Jews.
Unfortunately, the decree didn’t take effect for a year. In the meantime, Haman had to deal with Mordecai’s refusal to bow down to him. He took him problem home to his friends and his wife Zeresh. She proposed he have a gallows built and then suggest that Mordecai be hanged on it.
Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out the way Haman and Zeresh expected. When the king ended up rewarding Mordecai for saving his life a few years earlier, Zeresh had a bad feeling. She warned her husband, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.”
She was right. Queen Esther invited Haman and the king to a series of banquets. At the second banquet, she informed the king of Haman’s efforts to destroy the Jews, her people.
Furious, the king went to the palace gardens to calm down. While he was out, Haman pleaded with the queen to have mercy, and as he was begging, he fell down, landing atop the couch where Esther sat. When the king returned, he saw the situation and assumed Haman was assaulting the queen.
One of the king’s eunuch’s pointed out the gallows Haman built for Mordecai. The king then ordered Haman to be hung on the gallows instead.
Poor Zeresh had to watch her husband impaled by the gallows pole she conceived.
Read about Zeresh in Scripture: Esther 5:9-7:10
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