Esther 3: Haman’s Plot to Exterminate the Jews

And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day. Esther 3:13

Haman the Enemy of the Jews

Haman’s plot Haman is a high court official who becomes furious when he thinks Mordecai fails to show him sufficient respect. So he determines to wipe out Mordecai’s whole race in revenge!

Mordecai would not bow or pay homage (to Haman)… Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus–the people of Mordecai.

Haman complains about the Jews to Xerxes. He is given permission to write his own decree and stamp it with Xerxes’ signet ring. Haman sets a date on which anyone is permitted to kill Jews, and to make sure their enemies will act, he authorizes plunder of Jewish goods. His goal is nothing less than their total extermination.

Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus … If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.” So the king took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. And the king said to Haman, “The money and the people are given to you, to do with them as seems good to you.” …

And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day … the decree was proclaimed in Shushan the citadel. So the king and Haman sat down to drink