The Return · c. 474 BC
Chapter 11
Haman’s Plot
Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews.For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
For parents
This chapter tells of an order sent out in the king’s name to kill all the Jews in his kingdom on a single day, young and old, little children and women, and to take everything they owned (Esther 3:13, and the king’s letter in Greek Esther 3:13). No one is killed in this chapter. In her prayer, Queen Esther tells the Lord that she hates sharing the bed of a man who isn’t circumcised, and that she hates the symbol of her high rank on her head like an unclean rag (Greek Esther 4:43–44). Both lines are softened: the text says “the bed of the uncircumcised” and “a menstruous cloth”.
Some time after this, King promoted , the son of Hammedatha the . He raised Haman to high rank and gave him a seat higher than all the nobles around him.
All the king’s officials at the king’s gate bowed down to Haman and honored him, because the king had ordered it. But didn’t bow down or honor him.
The king’s officials at the gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s order?”
They said it to him day after day, but he wouldn’t listen to them. So they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s reason would hold up, because Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew.
When Haman saw that Mordecai didn’t bow down or honor him, he was furious. But attacking only Mordecai seemed too small a thing to him, because they had told him who Mordecai’s people were. So Haman set out to destroy Mordecai’s people, all the Jews in the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.
In the first month, , of King Ahasuerus’ twelfth year, they cast , that is, the lot, in front of Haman, from day to day and from month to month. The twelfth month was chosen, the month of .
Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people, scattered far and wide among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws aren’t like anyone else’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. So it does the king no good to let them remain.
“If it pleases the king, let an order be written that they be destroyed. And I will pay ten thousand of silver, some three hundred thirty tons, to the officials in charge of the king’s business, to put into the king’s treasuries.”
The king took his off his hand and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.
“The silver is yours,” the king said to Haman, “and the people too. Do with them whatever you think best.”
The king’s were called in on the thirteenth day of the first month. Everything Haman ordered was written down and sent to the king’s local governors, to the governors over each province, and to the nobles of each people: to every province in its own kind of writing, and to every people in its own language. It was all written in King Ahasuerus’ name and sealed with his ring.
Messengers carried the letters to all the king’s provinces. The order was to destroy, to kill and to wipe out all the Jews, young and old, little children and women, all on one day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month, Adar. And they were to take everything the Jews owned as plunder.
Here is a copy of the letter: “From the great King Ahasuerus to the rulers of the one hundred twenty-seven provinces, from India all the way to , and to the governors under them, all who hold power under the king:
“I rule over many nations, and the whole world is under my power. Yet I have not been carried away by confidence in my power. I have always acted with great self-control and gentleness. I made up my mind to give my subjects a calm life at all times, to keep my kingdom quiet and orderly to its farthest borders, and to bring back the peace that everyone longs for.
“When I asked my counselors how this could be done, Haman answered us. He stands out among us for his sound judgment. He has shown us steady goodwill and a loyalty that never fails, and he holds the second place in the kingdom. He told us that a certain people, unfriendly to us, is scattered among all the tribes of the world. Their law sets them against every other nation, and they keep ignoring the king’s commands, so that the kingdom we hold together and rule without blame cannot settle into peace.
“We see, then, that this nation is always set against everyone. It brings in a foreign set of laws to change things, and it plots the worst harm against our interests and against the settled order of the kingdom. So we order you, in the letter written by Haman, who is over the affairs of the kingdom and is second to us, to destroy them all, with their wives and children, by their enemies’ swords, with no pity, sparing no one, on the fourteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, this year. When these people, who have long been against us and are against us still, have been put to death by force in one day, our kingdom may be well ordered and quiet from then on.”
A copy of the writing was to be given out as a decree in every province and announced to all the peoples, so that they would be ready for that day.
At the king’s command the messengers rushed out, and in the fortress of the decree was given out. The king and Haman sat down to drink. But the city of Susa didn’t know what to make of it.
When Mordecai found out all that had been done, he tore his clothes and put on with ashes. He went out into the middle of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.
He came right up to the front of the king’s gate, because no one dressed in sackcloth was allowed inside the king’s gate.
Wherever the king’s command and decree came, in every province, the Jews mourned deeply. They and wept and wailed, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
’s maids and came to her and told her this, and the queen was overcome with grief. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear instead of his sackcloth, but he wouldn’t take them.
Then Esther called for , one of the king’s eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to serve her. She sent him to Mordecai to find out what this was and why it was happening. So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square in front of the king’s gate.
Mordecai told Hathach all that had happened to him, and exactly how much money Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for destroying the Jews. He also handed Hathach a copy of the written decree to destroy them, which had been given out in Susa. Hathach was to show it to Esther and tell her what it said, and urge her to go to the king, to plead with him and beg him for her people.
Hathach came back and told Esther what Mordecai had said.
Then Esther gave Hathach a message to take back to Mordecai: “All the king’s servants, and the people of his provinces, know the law. Anyone, man or woman, who comes to the king in the inner court without being called faces one law: death, unless the king holds out his golden to that person, and then they may live. And I have not been called to go to the king for thirty days now.”
They told Mordecai what Esther had said.
Mordecai sent back this answer to Esther: “Don’t imagine that you, in the king’s house, will escape when all the other Jews don’t. If you stay silent now, relief and rescue will come to the Jews from another place, but you will perish, and so will your father’s family. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Then Esther sent this answer to Mordecai: “Go, gather all the Jews who are here in Susa, and fast for me. For three days, night and day, don’t eat or drink. My maids and I will fast in the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
So Mordecai went off and did everything Esther had commanded him.
Mordecai prayed to the Lord, and in his prayer he spoke of all the things the Lord had done. He said:
Lord God, you are the King, ruling over all,because everything is in your power.No one can oppose your plan to save ,because you made the sky and the earthand every wonderful thing under the sky.You are Lord of all,and no one can resist you, Lord.
He went on:
You know everything.You know, Lord, that when I refused to bow down to proud Haman,I didn’t do it out of disrespect, or pride,or a love of glory.I would gladly have kissed the soles of his feetto keep Israel safe.But I did it so that I would not set the glory of a manabove the glory of God.I will worship no one but you, my Lord,and I will not do these things out of pride.And now, Lord God, the King, the God of ,spare your people,because our enemies are planning to destroy us,and they want to wipe out the people you made your own long ago.Don’t overlook your people,whom you set free for yourself out of the land of .Listen to my prayer.Have mercy on the people who are yours,and turn our mourning into gladness,so that we may live and sing praise to your name, O Lord.Don’t destroy the mouths that praise you, O Lord.
All Israel cried out as loudly as they could, because they could see death coming.
Queen Esther was in agony, as if she were dying, and she turned to the Lord for safety. She took off her splendid robes and put on clothes of distress and mourning. Instead of rich perfumes, she put ashes and dung on her head. She humbled her body deeply, and she let her tangled hair fill every place she used to decorate with joy.
She pleaded with the Lord God of Israel:
O my Lord, you alone are our King.Help me. I have nothing,and no helper but you,because my danger is close at hand.From my birth I have heard, in my family’s tribe,that out of all the nations, Lord, you took Israel,and you took our ancestors out of all their relativesto be yours forever,and that you have done for them all you said you would.
She went on:
And now we have sinned in your sight,and you have handed us over to our enemiesbecause we honored their gods.You do what is right, O Lord.But now the bitterness of our slavery isn’t enough for them.They have joined hands with their to do away with what your own mouth decreed,to wipe out your own people,to silence those who praise you,to put an end to the glory of your house and your ,to have the nations sing the praises of worthless things,and to have a king who must die admired forever.
Then she begged him:
O Lord, don’t hand over your scepter to those who don’t exist,and don’t let them laugh at our fall.Turn their plans back against them,and make an example of the one who has begun to harm us.Remember us, O Lord!Show yourself in the time of our trouble.Make me brave, O King of gods,ruler over every power!Give me the right words to say in front of the lion,and make his heart hate the one who fights against us,so that all who agree with him are utterly destroyed.But save us with your hand,and help me, because I am alone and have no one but you, O Lord.
And she said:
You know all things.You know that I hate the glory of lawbreakers,and that I hate sharing the bed of a man who isn’t ,or of any foreigner.You know what I am forced to bear.I hate the symbol of my high rank that sits on my headon my days of splendor.I hate it like an unclean rag,and I don’t wear it on my quiet days.I have not eaten at Haman’s table,or given honor to the king’s banquet,or drunk wine poured out as an offering.From the day I was raised to my high rank until now,I have taken no joy in anything except in you,O Lord God of Abraham.O God, who has power over all,listen to the voice of those who have lost all hope.Rescue us from the hand of those who plot harm.Free me from my fear.