Haman’s Plot against the Jews
1After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him to a position above all the princes who were with him. 2All the royal servants at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded that this be done for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.
- EST 3:1[NOTE]HAMAN THE AGAGITE. Agag was the king of Amalek whom King Saul spared, 1 Samuel 15. Mordecai was from Benjamin, Saul's tribe, and had a forefather named Kish, the same name as Saul's father. Many see an old feud here. See The Amalekites in 1 Samuel.
- EST 3:2[NOTE]WHY WOULD HE NOT BOW? The book does not say. Jews bowed to kings, 2 Samuel 14:4, so many think it was because Haman was an Amalekite. In the Greek Esther, Mordecai prays that he would not bow to anyone but God, Addition C, Esther 13:12 to 14 in some Bibles.
3Then the royal servants at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the command of the king?”
4Day after day they warned him, but he would not comply. So they reported it to Haman to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, since he had told them he was a Jew.
5When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or pay him homage, he was filled with rage. 6And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes.
7In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman to determine a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
- EST 3:7[ARCHAEOLOGY]An Assyrian clay cube from 833 BC calls itself a puru, a lot, the same word as Haman's Pur, see The Pur Field Notes box
- EST 3:7[NOTE]THE PUR. Haman cast lots to pick the day, and the lot fell almost a year away, on the month of Adar. That gave time for the rescue. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from Yahweh, Proverbs 16:33.
8Then Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples of every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, and they do not obey the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. 9If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit 375 tons of silver into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.”
- EST 3:9[NOTE]375 TONS OF SILVER. A huge fortune. In the Hebrew, the number here is 10,000. Many think Haman planned to pay it from the Jews' stolen goods, 3:13.
10So the king removed the signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11“Keep your money,” said the king to Haman. “These people are given to you to do with them as you please.”
12On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned and the order was written exactly as Haman commanded the royal satraps, the governors of each province, and the officials of each people, in the script of each province and the language of every people. It was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal signet ring.
13And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.
- EST 3:13[ARCHAEOLOGY]Herodotus and clay tablets from Persepolis describe the Persian royal post riders, see The King's Couriers Field Notes box
- EST 3:13[NOTE]THE ORDER. Kill every Jew, young and old, on one day, the 13th of Adar, about March 473 BC.
14A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued in every province and published to all the people, so that they would be ready on that day. 15The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s command, and the edict was issued in the citadel of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion.