Haman

Haman is the most important man in the court of the Persian King Ahasuerus. He wants to have all Jews in the kingdom of Persia and Media killed. His plan fails because of the intervention by Queen Esther and her foster father, Mordecai. The Jews are given permission to defend themselves and Haman is killed.

The name Haman is Persian and means “the great one”.

Haman is the son of Hammedatha and a distant descendant of Agag, the king of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:8). Haman’s wife is called Zeresh. They have ten sons together.

Haman is the most important vizier to King Ahasuerus. Everyone who meets him must bow to him, but Mordecai refuses to do this. Haman is furious about it and wants to kill Mordecai. But when he hears that Mordecai is Jewish, he devises a plan to exterminate all the Jews. He asks permission from the king to kill a certain group of people, without telling him exactly which group of people he has in mind. He places a gallows by his house especially for Mordecai.

When Mordecai hears what Haman is planning, he warns his foster daughter Esther, who is married to King Ahasuerus. Esther invites her husband, King Ahasuerus, and Haman to dinner twice. The second time, she tells Ahasuerus that she is also a part of the people that Haman wants to destroy. She asks the king to let her and her people live.

The king is shocked when he realises what Haman is really planning. As a punishment, he hangs Haman from the gallows that he had set up for Mordecai. Later the bodies of his ten sons are hanged from this pole as well (Esther 9:13).

Esther is given all of Haman’s possessions and Mordecai takes his place as most important vizier to the king.

Haman cast lots (pur in Hebrew) to determine on which day the Jews in the Persian Empire would be destroyed. The name of the festival of Purim is derived from this word pur. During Purim the Jewish people remember how Esther and Mordecai outsmarted their enemy Haman and that the Jewish people were saved.