Harbona

Harbona (a Persian name meaning ass-driver) was one of the seven chamberlains or eunuchs who served King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I) at the royal court of Persia. He is mentioned twice in the book of Esther: first in the opening chapter (Esth. 1:10) among the seven officials sent to summon Queen Vashti to the royal banquet, and second in the climactic scene of Haman's downfall (Esth. 7:9).

Harbona's second appearance is pivotal: as Esther has just revealed Haman's plot to destroy the Jews, and the king rises in fury from the banquet and walks into the palace garden, Harbona speaks up to inform the king that Haman has built a gallows fifty cubits high in his own courtyard for the purpose of hanging Mordecai—the very man who saved the king's life. The king's immediate response, Hang him thereon, seals Haman's fate. Whether Harbona's intervention was providential loyalty to Mordecai or simple courtly opportunism, his single sentence becomes the turning point of the entire narrative.