Esther
Chapter 3
Haman and Mordecai
After these events, King Ahasuerus elevated Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, to a higher rank than all the other officials.
On the king’s orders, all the royal officials at the king’s gate would kneel and bow down to Haman. Mordecai, however, refused to do so.
The royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai: “Why do you disobey the king’s order?”
They spoke to him day after day, but he refused to comply, saying he was a Jew. To determine if this explanation was acceptable, they reported the matter to Haman.
Haman was furious when he saw Mordecai wouldn’t kneel or pay him honor.
Having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he believed it wouldn’t be enough to target him alone, but aimed to destroy all the Jews throughout Ahasuerus’s kingdom.
In the first month of Nisan, during King Ahasuerus’s twelfth year, the pur, or lottery, was cast in Haman’s presence to decide the day and month for Mordecai’s people’s destruction. The lot landed on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar.
Haman told King Ahasuerus: “Scattered across the provinces of your kingdom are certain people whose customs differ from others. Since they do not obey our laws, tolerating them is not in the king’s best interest.
If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them. I will deposit ten thousand silver talents into the royal treasury for the men who carry out the king’s orders.”
The king removed the signet ring from his finger, handed it to Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews, and said:
“Keep the money, and do with these people as you please.”
On the thirteenth day of the first month, the royal scribes were summoned. As Haman dictated, they wrote orders in the script of each province and the language of each people for the king’s satraps, the governors of every province, and the officials of every people. Written in the name of King Ahasuerus himself and sealed with his ring.
These dispatches were sent by couriers to all the royal provinces with the order to kill, destroy, and wipe out all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar, and to plunder their goods.
A copy of the edict to be enacted as law in every province was published so that everyone would be aware and prepared for that day.
The couriers, encouraged by the king’s command, hurried out, and the edict was first announced in Susa. As the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was left in confusion.
Commentaries
Haman and Mordecai.
Haman finds a justification to remove the honest and loyal official from his political pursuit. However, since those in power are often not satisfied with minor executions that have little or no impact on national and international affairs, Haman escalates the situation by proposing to the king the extermination of all individuals of Mordecai’s race. Without considering the repercussions, Ahasuerus allows his minister to proceed. The king understands that for the empire to exist as an empire, it must unify through standardization; it must be intolerant, removing anything that seems different in each region, in every province. The fate of Mordecai and all those of his ethnic group is sealed. For now, intolerance, disguised as “national security,” has everything to gain.