Bible Strands
Esther 5:14
His wife Zeresh and all his friends told him, “Have them build a gallows fifty cubits high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go to the banquet with the king and enjoy yourself.” The advice pleased Haman, and he had the gallows constructed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Zeresh and Haman’s friends address Haman immediately after he declares that Mordecai’s presence at the king’s gate ruins his satisfaction. They instruct him to have a fifty-cubit gallows built and to petition the king that morning to execute Mordecai on it before attending the banquet.
The words — The Hebrew עֵץ (etz) literally means “wood” or “tree,” here denoting the gallows, while גָּבֹהַּ (gavoah) means “high.” These terms precisely define the structure’s material and its exact height of fifty cubits.
The thread — The gallows reappears in Esther 7:9 when Harbonah reports it standing at Haman’s house, and it links to Esther 6:4 where Haman enters the outer court to make his execution request. The dynamic of a wife advising her husband mirrors the counsel Jezebel gives to Ahab in 1 Kings 21:7.
Why it lands — The text records Haman’s immediate compliance with the advice, showing how quickly pride accepts a lethal plan. It requires the reader to note the structural irony that the instrument prepared for another becomes the mechanism of the preparer’s own downfall.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.
Cross-references
- Esther 6:4 “Who is in the court?” the king asked. Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared for him.
- 1 Kings 21:7 But his wife Jezebel said to him, “Do you not reign over Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful, for I will get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
- Esther 7:9 Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high at Haman’s house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.” “Hang him on it!” declared the king.
- Psalms 37:14 The wicked have drawn the sword and bent the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.
- Psalms 37:32 Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them,
- Psalms 7:13 He has prepared His deadly weapons; He ordains His arrows with fire.
- Acts 23:14 They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul.
- 2 Samuel 13:3 Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man,
- 2 Samuel 16:21 Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to take care of the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
- 1 Kings 21:25 (Surely there was never one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, incited by his wife Jezebel.