So after the feast that Esther had given, Haman and the King both went about their other business. Haman had a gallows made and the King just went back to whatever kingly duties he had.
That night, the King couldn't sleep, so he had the book of records brought in and someone to read it to him.
This is when he discovers that Mordecai had apparently discovered that Bigthana and Teresh, two people who worked in the palace, as the keepers of the door (guards), had planned to kill the king.
Mordecai had reported them and they had been dealt with.
So King Ahasuerus asks his men what honor had been given to Mordecai for doing this, to which his men replied there had been none.
So the King asked who was in the court (I'm assuming this was so he could ask their opinion). His men told him Haman was in waiting at the gates to talk to the king, so the king told him to be brought in.
Haman had been waiting to ask the king's permission to hang Mordecai, but first, the King decided to ask his advice.
So he asked Haman what, if he could, would he do to honor someone?
Haman thought that the King probably wanted to honor him. He is after all the king's favorite person, right?
So Haman says that he should take the royal robes and the crown that the king wears and put them on this man, then to take the horse that the king rides and have the king's most noble of the princes lead the horse with the man on it around the city shouting "Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor."
So the king likes this idea, so he says to Haman that he, being the most noble of all the princes, shall take Mordecai the Jew, and do all these things to him, because that is the man that the king wants to honor.
Haman cannot directly disobey the king. Even though Ahasuerus seems like a nice guy, he is also the king of a pagan land and he must keep the people respecting him, so Haman could probably have been killed or something for direct disobedience.
I'm sure that Haman was probably humiliated as he walked through the streets, yelling that the King was delighted in Mordecai. The man he hates is sitting on the king's horse, in the king's robes and crown, being pranced around in the streets and all the while, Haman is stewing, thinking about those gallows he had made, and how badly he wants to see Mordecai's limp corpse swaying in the wind in his back yard.
But he does as he is told anyway, and afterwards goes home and calls his friends and his wife together to tell them what happened.
Zeresh (his wife) says to him, If he has already fallen before Mordecai, the seed of the Jews, then he is going to fall. She doesn't think that his plan to kill all the Jews is going to work if he couldn't even get the upper hand on one Jew, his most hated adversary.
And while Haman is still talking to his friends and Zeresh, a servant from the palace comes to get him to take him to Esther's second feast.
And thus ends chapter 6.
Cheers!
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