Esther 3:2

3:2 As a result, ¹  all the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate were bowing and paying homage to Haman, for the king had so commanded. However, Mordecai did not bow, ²  nor did he pay him homage.

Esther 5:14

5:14 Haman’s ³  wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows seventy-five feet ⁴  high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.” ⁵ 

It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.

Esther 10:2

10:2 Now all the actions carried out under his authority and his great achievements, along with an exact statement concerning the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king promoted, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia?

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). Other modern English versions leave the conjunction untranslated here (NAB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

[3:2]  ² sn Mordecai did not bow. The reason for Mordecai’s refusal to bow before Haman is not clearly stated here. Certainly the Jews did not refuse to bow as a matter of principle, as though such an action somehow violated the second command of the Decalogue. Many biblical texts bear witness to their practice of falling prostrate before people of power and influence (e.g., 1 Sam 24:8; 2 Sam 14:4; 1 Kgs 1:16). Perhaps the issue here was that Haman was a descendant of the Amalekites, a people who had attacked Israel in an earlier age (see Exod 17:8-16; 1 Sam 15:17-20; Deut 25:17-19).

[5:14]  ³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “fifty cubits.” Assuming a standard length for the cubit of about 18 inches (45 cm), this would be about seventy-five feet (22.5 meters), which is a surprisingly tall height for the gallows. Perhaps the number assumes the gallows was built on a large supporting platform or a natural hill for visual effect, in which case the structure itself may have been considerably smaller. Cf. NCV “a seventy-five foot platform”; CEV “a tower built about seventy-five feet high.”

[5:14]  ⁵ tn Or “joyful”; NRSV “in good spirits”; TEV “happy.”