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16  We took sweet counsel together ♦︎
   and walked with the multitude in the house of God.
17  Let death come suddenly upon them;
      let them go down alive to the Pit; ♦︎
   for wickedness inhabits their dwellings, their very hearts.
18  As for me, I will call upon God ♦︎
   and the Lord will deliver me.
19  In the evening and morning and at noonday
      I will pray and make my supplication, ♦︎
   and he shall hear my voice.
20  He shall redeem my soul in peace
      from the battle waged against me, ♦︎
   for many have come upon me.
21  God, who is enthroned of old,
      will hear and bring them down; ♦︎
   they will not repent, for they have no fear of God.
22  My companion stretched out his hands against his friend ♦︎
   and has broken his covenant;
23  His speech was softer than butter, though war was in his heart; ♦︎
   his words were smoother than oil, yet are they naked swords.

The King Honours Mordecai

6That night the king could not sleep, and he gave orders to bring the book of records, the annals, and they were read to the king. ²It was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had conspired to assassinate^* King Ahasuerus. ³Then the king said, ‘What honour or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?’ The king’s servants who attended him said, ‘Nothing has been done for him.’ ⁴The king said, ‘Who is in the court?’ Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. ⁵So the king’s servants told him, ‘Haman is there, standing in the court.’ The king said, ‘Let him come in.’ ⁶So Haman came in, and the king said to him, ‘What shall be done for the man whom the king wishes to honour?’ Haman said to himself, ‘Whom would the king wish to honour more than me?’ ⁷So Haman said to the king, ‘For the man whom the king wishes to honour, ⁸let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and a horse that the king has ridden, with a royal crown on its head. ⁹Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials; let him^* robe the man whom the king wishes to honour, and let him^* conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: “Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honour.” ’ ¹⁰Then the king said to Haman, ‘Quickly, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to the Jew Mordecai who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.’ ¹¹So Haman took the robes and the horse and robed Mordecai and led him riding through the open square of the city, proclaiming, ‘Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honour.’

12 Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. ¹³When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, ‘If Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is of the Jewish people, you will not prevail against him, but will surely fall before him.’

Haman’s Downfall and Mordecai’s Advancement

14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the banquet that Esther had prepared. 7¹So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. ²On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, ‘What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.’ ³Then Queen Esther answered, ‘If I have won your favour, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me—that is my petition—and the lives of my people—that is my request. ⁴For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.’^{* 5}Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, ‘Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?’ ⁶Esther said, ‘A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!’ Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

Israel’s Unbelief

30 What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; ³¹but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law. ³²Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling-stone, ³³as it is written,
‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall,
   and whoever believes in him^* will not be put to shame.’

10Brothers and sisters,^* my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. ²I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. ³For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. ⁴For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.