The story that Haman told his wife and friends is an almost incredible story. On the very day when he intended to have Mordecai hanged, he was forced to pay Mordecai the highest honour! This story led Haman’s wife and friends to conclude that a higher power was involved, one that was too strong even for the second most powerful man of Persia to resist.
The day before, when they had advised Haman to have a gallows built, they had looked past the fact that Mordecai was a Jew (Esther 5:14). Now, they concluded that no plan of theirs could prevail, because Mordecai was of Jewish origin.
Clearly, they had come up against a mightier enemy than they had realized before. The God of Mordecai’s people was involved!
Were Zeresh and Haman’s friends perhaps aware of God’s war against Amalek (Exodus 17:16; Deuteronomy 25:17–19)? Had they heard of Balaam’s prophecy that Israel’s king will be greater than Agag,
and that the Amalekites will come to ruin at last
(Numbers 24:7, Numbers 24:20)?
Even if they were not aware of these prophecies, they would certainly have heard of the power of Israel’s God (see, e.g., Joshua 2:10–11; Isaiah 41:20). Not long ago, God had given a fresh display of his power when he had led many of his people out of exile and back to Jerusalem.
In any case, the wife and friends were now convinced that, in opposing Mordecai, Haman would surely come to ruin!
13 And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “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.”