Esther 3:1

_AFTER THESE THINGS DID KING AHASUERUS PROMOTE HAMAN THE SON OF HAMMEDATHA THE AGAGITE, AND ADVANCED HIM, AND SET HIS SEAT ABOVE ALL THE PRINCES THAT WERE WITH HIM._ After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman ... and set his seat above all the princes - i:e., raised him to the rank of vizier, or prime confidential minister, whose pro-eminence in office and power appeared in the elevated state-chair appropriated to that supreme functionary. Such a distinction in seats was counted of vast importance in the formal court of Persia....

1-6 Mordecai refused to reverence Haman. The religion of a Jew forbade him to give honours to any mortal man which savoured of idolatry, especially to so wicked a man as Haman. By nature all are idolaters; self is our favourite idol, we are pleased to be treated as if every thing were at our disposal. Though religion by no means destroys good manners, but teaches us to render honour to whom honour is due, yet by a citizen of Zion, not only in his heart, but in his eyes, such a vile person as Haman was, is contemned, Psalms 15:4. The true believer cannot obey edicts, or conform to fashions, which break the law of God. He must obey God rather than man, and leave the consequences to him. Haman was full of wrath. His device was inspired by that wicked spirit, who has been a murderer from the beginning; whose enmity to Christ and his church, governs all his children....

CHAPTER III _Ahasuerus exalts Haman the Agagite, and commands all his_ _officers to do him reverence, which Mordecai refuses_, 1-3. _Haman, informed of Mordecai's refusal, plots his destruction,_ _and that of the Jews_, 4-6. _Lots are cast to find out the proper time_, 7. _Haman accuses the Jews to Ahasuerus, counsels him to destroy_ _them, and offers_ ten thousand _talents of silver for the damage_ _which the revenue might sustain by their destruction_, 8, 9. _The king refuses the money, but gives Haman full authority to_...

The name, Haman, is probably the same as the Classical Omanes, and in ancient Persian, “Umana”, an exact equivalent of the Greek “Eumenes.” Hammedatha is perhaps the same as “Madata” or “Mahadata”, an old Persian name signifying “given by (or to) the moon.” THE AGAGITE - The Jews generally understand by this expression “the descendant of Agag,” the Amalekite monarch of 1 Samuel 15. Haman, however, by his own name, and the names of his sons Esther 9:7 and his father, would seem to have been a genuine Persian. The Classical writers make no mention of Haman’s advancement; but their notices of the reign of Xerxes after 479 B.C. are exceedingly scanty....

EXPOSITION MORDECAI, BY WANT OF RESPECT, OFFENDS HAMAN, AHASUERUS' CHIEF MINISTER. HAMAN, IN REVENGE, RESOLVES TO DESTROY THE ENTIRE NATION OF THE JEWS (Esther 3:1). A break, probably of some years, separates Esther 2:1. from Esther 3:1. In the interval a new and important event has occurred a new character has made appearance upon the scene. Haman,

AFTER THESE THINGS,.... After the marriage of Esther, and the discovery of the conspiracy to take away the king's life, five years after, as Aben Ezra observe, at least more than four years, for so it appears from Esther 3:7 DID KING AHASUERUS PROMOTE HAMAN THE SON OF HAMMEDATHA THE AGAGITE; whom both the Targums make to descend from Amalek, and to be of the stock or family of Agag, the common name of the kings of Amalek; and so Josephus g; but this is not clear and certain; in the apocryphal Esther he is said to be a Macedonian; and Sulpitius the historian says h he was a Persian, which is not improbable; and Agag might be the name of a family or city in Persia, of which he was; and Aben Ezra observes, that some say he is the same with Memucan, see Esther 1:14, and advanced him,

HAMAN AND HIS WICKED PLOT CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The promotion of Haman and Mordecai's faithfulness (Esther 3:1)_ 2. Haman's proposal and the King's assent (Esther 3:7) 3. The proclamation of death (Esther 3:12) Esther 3:1. How long after these things the history of this chapter came to pass is not definitely stated. It probably happened after a short interval. We are now introduced to Haman, the Son of Hammedatha the Agagite. Him the king promoted and set his seat above all the princes. The tracing of this man's name is of interest. Its meaning is “A magnificent one.” Philologists derive it from the Persian god Haoma or

ESTHER 3. HAMAN, TO AVENGE A SLIGHT PUT ON HIM BY MORDECAI, PERSUADES THE KING TO ORDER A MASSACRE OF THE JEWS. The Grand Vizier Haman, Heb. calls a descendant of that mysterious people, the Amalekites, and even of their king Agag (1 Samuel 15). To suppose that the word Agag really means Gog, and to gather that we have here a sting for the memory of the Scythians, is a rather helpless device. The Heb. writer seems to have wished to avoid saying that Haman was a Macedonian, _i.e._ a Syrian. In ch. 8 LXX says he was so. Perhaps that was dangerous politics: those were the nations of the bloodthirsty Alexander and Antiochus. Haman, in his jealousy of Mordecai, would murder every Jewish man, woman, and child. Here is horrible blood-thirst, but it is Gentile blood-thirst. It is not Jewish, and it passes comprehension why this ferocious character of Haman has been so often attributed to the Jew...

AFTER THESE THINGS. Hainan was not made Grand Vizier till five years later. See Esther 3:7. AHASUERUS. See note on Esther 1:1. AGAGITE.. descendant of Amalekite kings (Numbers 24:7; 1 Samuel 15:8; 1 Samuel 15:32). Called an Amalekite by Josephus (_Antiquities_ xi. 6, 5)....

Esther 3:1-6. Haman offended by Mordecai's refusal to make obeisance 1. _After these things_ i.e. between the seventh (Esther 2:16) and the twelfth (Esther 3:7) years of Xerxes" reign. _Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite_ Haman's name has been held to be another form of _Humman_or _Humban_, an Elamite deity, and that of his father to be connected with the Persian _mâh_and _data_, thus signifying _given by the moon_. The description of Haman as an -Agagite" is perplexing. The following views have been held. (_a_) Josephus (_Ant._xi. 6. 5) and the Targum understand the statement literally to mean that Haman was descended from Agag, king of Amalek, the latter availin