Haman the Agagite: The Man Hanged on His Own Gallows

Who Haman Was, and When

Haman is a Persian man, son of Hammedatha, called in Scripture "the Agagite, the Jews' enemy" (Esther 3:10). He belongs to the era of the exile, placed at around 606 BC to 536 BC on Ussher's chronology (1650). He appears in one book only, Esther, where he occupies forty-five verses, first at Esther 3:1. His wife is Zeresh (Esther 5:10), and ten sons are named for him: Parshandatha, Dalphon and Aspatha (Esther 9:7), Poratha, Adalia and Aridatha (Esther 9:8), Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha (Esther 9:9). His story runs in tight scenes, and each one turns on a single hinge: what one man at the king's gate will not do for him.

Wrath at the Gate

The trouble begins with a refusal and a report. "Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily to him, and he didn't listen to them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's reason would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew. When Haman saw that Mordecai didn't bow down, nor pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath" (Esther 3:4-5).

What follows is not a flash of temper but a calculation. "But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai's people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai's people" (Esther 3:6). The lot is cast, "in the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus," and it falls on "the twelfth month, which is the month Adar" (Esther 3:7).

Then he goes to the king with a description carefully shaped to leave out a name: "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different from other people's. They don't keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not for the king's profit to allow them to remain" (Esther 3:8).

The Ring and the Decree

The king hands over his authority without asking a single question. "The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. The king said to Haman, 'The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you'" (Esther 3:10-11). The scribes are called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and "all that Haman commanded was written" to governors, princes and peoples, "in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king's ring" (Esther 3:12). The consequence of that hour is carried further at Esther 3:15 and Esther 4:7.

The Banquet and the Boast

Esther invites the king and Haman to a banquet (Esther 5:4-5, 5:8). "Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he didn't stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai" (Esther 5:9). At home he calls his friends and Zeresh his wife and rehearses "the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king" (Esther 5:11). He adds the invitation as the crown of it all (Esther 5:12). A gallows is raised at Esther 5:14.

The Night He Honored Mordecai

Haman comes to the outer court "to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him" (Esther 6:4). Before he can speak, the king asks, "What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?" And the narrator opens Haman's chest: "Now Haman said in his heart, 'Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?'" (Esther 6:6). The answer he designs for himself is placed on another: "Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken" (Esther 6:10). He obeys, leads the horse, proclaims the honor, and "hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered" (Esther 6:12). His own household reads the outcome before he does: "If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him" (Esther 6:13).

The Fall

At the second banquet (Esther 7:1) Esther names him: "An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!" (Esther 7:6). He who scorned the thought of touching one man now "stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king" (Esther 7:7). The king returns to find him fallen on Esther's couch and says, "Will he even assault the queen in front of me in the house?" (Esther 7:8). Harbonah points to the gallows "fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king," standing at Haman's own house. "The king said, 'Hang him on it!' So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai" (Esther 7:9-10). His house and his name are dealt with further at Esther 8:1-3, 8:5, 8:7, 9:10, 9:12-14 and 9:24.

The Failures Scripture Names

Scripture does not soften him. It says he was "full of wrath" over a man who would not bow (Esther 3:5), that he set out to destroy an entire people because of one man's refusal (Esther 3:6), that he spoke to the king of a people whose name he never gave (Esther 3:8), that he counted his riches and his children out loud (Esther 5:11), and that he assumed no one could be more worthy of honor than himself (Esther 6:6). The wood he cut for another held him.

What We Are Not Told

We are told nothing of Haman before Esther 3:1: no birth, no youth, no account of how he came to stand where he stands, apart from the note that the king had promoted him and advanced him above the princes (Esther 5:11). We are not told what he thought of the Jews before Mordecai's refusal, nor why he scorned the thought of striking one man alone beyond what Esther 3:6 states. This dossier lists no New Testament passage that mentions him, so no line is drawn forward from him here. The book leaves him where it found him, at the gate, unable to bear one unbent back.