Since men are free, politics can never deal in certainties, but only in probabilities. This means that while everything may depend on the political move of a righteous man, even his best calculations cannot prevent the worst if someone else has prepared better and has struck with greater skill. And so it is in Esther: Mordechai's interference in the attempt on the king's life – intended to gain him favor with the king and his advisers – instead plays into the hands of another, who has for years been moving, probing, pressing for just such an opportunity. And in providing him with this opportunity, Mordechai also ensures the ruin of his own hopes of gaining influence with the king, instead bringing himself into open confrontation with Ahashverosh's court.

The investigation of Ahashverosh's closest servants reveals that Mordechai's information had been correct. Two of these servants had indeed conspired to murder the king, and the results of the inquiry bring about their arrest and subsequent execution. Others among the king's officials are exonerated, but not without damaging his trust in them and, consequently, their capacity to perform their duties. Additional conspiracies are considered possible, but the king's advisers and the princes of the empire disagree as to where the threat may lie, and few of them are themselves above suspicion. Thus while the immediate danger may have passed, it is clear that the effects of the attempted coup cannot so quickly be repaired. Like Vashti's insubordination, the treachery of his trusted officers leaves Ahashverosh exposed, before the kingdom and in his own eyes: While he presumes to possess the power to rule the known world, it becomes apparent that he cannot even tell what is happening in the palace at Susa. And just as Vashti's rebellion leads him to reassert himself by deposing and banishing her, so too does the rebellion of the king's servants lead him to take drastic action to grind them all under heel. He responds to the chaos with the imposition of a figure he believes will be able to restore order and inspire awe in other would-be conspirators: Haman the Agagite, before whom, Ahashverosh decrees, the entire political leadership of the empire is expected to pay obeisance: