Esther 6:7

HAMAN'S ADVICE ON HOW TO HONOR THE MAN

"And Haman said unto the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honor, let royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and on the head of which a crown royal is set: and let the apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man therewith whom the king delighteth to honor, and cause him to ride on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor."

None of the writers we have consulted has dealt with the possibility that Ahasuerus might have discerned Haman's supposition that such honors would be done to himself, and that he detected in that egocentric minister the ambition to sieze the crown itself. Certainly, a man's riding on a horse with a royal crown on his head was a very powerful symbol of royal authority. Such would most certainly have been an effective way of reminding Haman that he was not the most noble prince, but one of the most noble princes.

"On the head of which a crown royal is set" (Esther 6:8). "The practice of setting crown-like head-dresses on horses is attested by Assyrian reliefs."[1]

Only the king seems to have been ignorant of the feud between Mordecai and Haman; certainly everybody in Shushan must have been aware of it. "Thus the king had no idea of the irony of the situation in which he placed his favorite minister."[2] However, the whole city of Shushan would have been astounded at this development.