haman Summary and Overview

(of Persian origin), magnificent, the name of the vizier (i.e., the prime minister) of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Esther 3:1, etc.). He is called an "Agagite," which seems to denote that he was descended from the royal family of the Amalekites, the bitterest enemies of the Jews, as Agag was one of the titles of the Amalekite kings. He or his parents were brought to Persia as captives taken in war. He was hanged on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai the Jew (Esther 7:10). (See ESTHER T0001254.)

(magnificent), the chief minister or vizier of King Ahasuerus. #Es 3:1| (B.C. 473.) After the failure of his attempt to cut off all the Jews in the Persian empire, he was hanged on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai. The Targum and Josephus interpret the inscription of him--the Agagite --as signifying that he was of Amalekitish descent. The Jews hiss whenever his name is mentioned on the day of Purim.

HA'MAN (celebrated), prime minister of Ahasuerus, the Persian monarch. Esth 3:1. His pride being hurt because Mordecai, the Jew, refused to bow and do him reverence, Esth 3:2, he secured a royal decree for the extermination of all Jews in the Persian dominions. He was, however, thwarted through the influence of Esther, and executed on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Esth 7:10. The Jews, on the mention of his name on the day of Purim, hiss. Like Sejanus in Roman history, his name will always suggest the contrast of power and disgrace.

(See ESTHER.) Son of Hammedatha "the Agagite," probably of Amalekite origin (Numbers 24:7; Numbers 24:20; 1 Samuel 15:8). The Amalekites had from the first pursued Israel with unrelenting spite (Exodus 17:16, margin; Deuteronomy 25:17-19), and were consequently all but exterminated by Israel (1 Samuel 15:8; 1 Samuel 30:17; 2 Samuel 8:12; 1 Chronicles 4:43). A survivor of such a race would instinctively hate Israel and every Jew. Elevated by one of those sudden turns which are frequent in despotic states where all depends on the whim of the autocrat, he showed that jealousy of any omission of respect which is characteristic of upstarts. These two motives account for his monstrous scheme of revenge whereby he intended to exterminate a whole nation for the affront of omission of respect on the part of the one individual, Mordecai. God's retributive judgment and overruling providence are remarkably illustrated; his wicked plot backfired on himself; the honours which he designed for himself he, in spite of himself, heaped on the man whom he so scornfully hated; and the gallows on which he meant to hang Mordecai was that on which he was hanged himself (Psalm 7:15-16).