Haman

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A favorite of Ashasuerus, king of Persia. In order to revenge himself upon Mordecai the Jew, he plotted the extermination of all the Jews in the kingdom; but in the providence of God he as thwarted by Esther, fell into disgrace with the king, and wrought his own ruin and the upbuilding of the Jews. He is called an Agaite; and as Agag was a common name of the Amalekite kings, the Jews believe he was of that race. This would help to explain his malice against the Jews. See Amalekites . Similar wholesale slaughters are still plotted in Asia, and the whole narrative is confirmed and illustrated by the descriptions of eastern life furnished by modern travellers in the same region. The death of Haman took place about 485 B. C. His eventful history shows that pride goes before destruction; that the providence of God directs all things; that his people are safe in the midst of perils; and that his foes must perish.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Esther 3:1Esther 7:10Esther

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

(See ESTHER.) Son of Hammedatha "the Agagite," probably of Amalekite origin (Numbers 24:7; Numbers 24:20; 1 Samuel 15:8). The Amalekites had from the first pursued Israel with unrelenting spite (Exodus 17:16, margin; Deuteronomy 25:17-19), and were consequently all but exterminated by Israel (1 Samuel 15:8; 1 Samuel 30:17; 2 Samuel 8:12; 1 Chronicles 4:43). A survivor of such a race would instinctively hate Israel and every Jew. Elevated by one of those sudden turns which are frequent in despotic states where all depends on the whim of the autocrat, he showed that jealousy of any omission of respect which is characteristic of upstarts.

These two motives account for his monstrous scheme of revenge whereby he intended to exterminate a whole nation for the affront of omission of respect on the part of the one individual, Mordecai. God's retributive judgment and overruling providence are remarkably illustrated; his wicked plot backfired on himself; the honours which he designed for himself he, in spite of himself, heaped on the man whom he so scornfully hated; and the gallows on which he meant to hang Mordecai was that on which he was hanged himself (Psalms 7:15-16).

Holman Bible Dictionary

Esther 3:1Esther

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

HAMAN (Ad. Est 12:6, 16:10, 17 Aman ), the son of Hammedatha, appears in the Bk. of Est. as the enemy of the Jews, and the chief minister of Ahasuerus. On his plot against the Jews and its frustration by Esther see art. Esther.

In later times, at the Feast of Purim, it seems to have been customary to hang an effigy of Haman; but as the gibbet was sometimes made in the form of a cross, riots between Jews and Christians were the result, and a warning against insults to the Christian faith was issued by the emperor Theodosius ii. ( Cod. Theod . xvi. viii. 18; cf. 21).

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The chief minister of Ahasuerus in the time of Esther. He was called 'the Agagite,' which associated him with the Amalekites, a people that had attacked Israel maliciously. Perpetual warfare had been pronounced against them by Jehovah and this accounts for Mordecai's refusal to pay Haman reverence, which so wounded his pride and aroused his anger that he plotted to destroy not only Mordecai but all the Jews that were in the king's dominions. His offer of the immense sum of 10,000 talents of silver ought to have shown the king that he had some sinister end in view. Lots were drawn to get a propitious day for their destruction. Not wishing however to wait for that distant day, he thought he would get rid of Mordecai at once by hanging him, and prepared a gallows for the purpose, intending in the morning to ask for his life. But God, who was watching over all, caused that the king on that very night should be reminded of Mordecai's services, which resulted in Haman being compelled to take his intended victim through the city on the king's horse, and proclaim him as the man whom the king delighted to honour. Then Esther pleaded for her life, and the salvation of her people, pointing out Haman as the one who had plotted their destruction; and he was hanged on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai: cf. Proverbs 26:27 . The ten sons of Haman lost their lives also. Thus God watched over His people in their captivity and made the device of their enemy to fall upon his own head, as it will be with Satan. Esther 3 - 9.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Haman (hâ'man), celebrated. Prime minister of Ahasuerus, the Persian monarch. Esther 3:1. His pride was hurt because Mordecai, the Jew, refused to how and do him reverence. Esther 3:2. He was executed on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Esther 7:10. The Jews, on the mention of his name on the day of Purim, hiss.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Ha'man. (magnificent). The chief minister or vizier, of King Ahasuerus. Esther 3:1. (B.C. 473). After the failure of his attempt to cut off all the Jews in the Persian empire, he was hanged on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai. The Targum and Josephus interpret the inscription of him - the Agagite - as signifying that he was of Amalekitish descent. The Jews hiss whenever his name is mentioned, on the Day of Purim.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

son of Hammedatha, the Amalekite, of the race of Agag; or, according to other copies, son of Hamadath the Bugean or Gogean, that is, of the race of Gog; or it may be read, Haman the son of Hamadath, which Haman was Bagua or Bagoas, eunuch, that is, officer to the king of Persia. We have no proof of Haman's being an Amalekite; but Esther 3:1 , reads of the race of Agag. In the apocryphal Greek, Esther 9:24 , and the Latin, Esther 16:10, he is called a Macedonian, animo et gente Macedo. King Ahasuerus, having taken him into favour, promoted him above all the princes of his court, who bent the knee to him (probably prostrated themselves wholly before him, as to a deity) when he entered the palace: this Mordecai the Jew declined, for which slight, Haman plotted the extirpation of the whole Jewish nation; which was providentially prevented. He was hanged on a gibbet fifty cubits high, which he had prepared for Mordecai; his house was given to Queen Esther; and his employments to Mordecai. His ten sons were likewise executed. See ESTHER .

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hā´man ( המן , hāmān  ; Ἁμάν , Hamán ): A P ersian noble and vizier of the empire under Xerxes. He was the enemy of Mordecai, the cousin of Esther. Mordecai, being a Jew, was unable to prostrate himself before the great official and to render to him the adoration which was due to him in accordance with Persian custom. Haman's wrath was so inflamed that one man's life seemed too mean a sacrifice, and he resolved that Mordecai's nation should perish with him. This was the cause of Haman's downfall and death. A ridiculous notion, which, though widely accepted, has no better foundation than a rabbinic suggestion or guess, represents him as a descendant of Agag, the king of Amalek, who was slain by Samuel. But the language of Scripture (1 Samuel 15:33 ) indicates that when Agag fell, he was the last of his house. Besides, why should his descendants, if any existed, be called Agagites and not Amalekites? Saul's posterity are in no case termed Saulites, but Benjamites or Israelites. But the basis of this theory has been swept away by recent discovery. Agag was a territory adjacent to that of Media. In an inscription found at Khorsabad, Sargon, the father of Sennacherib, says: "Thirty-four districts of Media I conquered and I added them to the domain of Assyria: I imposed upon them an annual tribute of horses. The country of Agazi (Agag) ... I ravaged, I wasted, I burned." It may be added that the name of Haman is not Hebrew, neither is that of Hammedatha his father. "The name of Haman," writes M. Oppert, the distinguished Assyriologist, "as well as that of his father, belongs to the Medo-Persian."

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Ha´man, a name of the planet Mercury; a favorite of the king of Persia, whose history is involved in that of Esther and Mordecai. He is called an Agagite; and as Agag was a kind of title of the kings of the Amalekites [AGAG], it is supposed that Haman was descended from the royal family of that nation. He or his parents probably found their way to Persia as captives or hostages; and that the foreign origin of Haman was no bar to his advancement at court, is a circumstance quite in union with the most ancient and still subsisting usages of the East. Joseph, Daniel, and Mordecai afford other examples of the same kind.

It is unnecessary to repeat the particulars of a story so well known as that of Haman. The circumstantial details of the height which he attained and of his sudden downfall, afford, like all the rest of the book of Esther, a most faithful picture of the customs of an Oriental court and government, and furnish invaluable materials for a comparison between the regal usages of ancient and modern times. The result of such a comparison will excite surprise by the closeness of the resemblance; for there is not a single fact in the history of Haman which might not occur at the present day, and which, indeed, is not of frequent occurrence in different combinations. The death of Haman appears to have taken place about the year B.C. 510.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Haman', הָמָן , perh. from the Pers. homam, magnificent, or the Sanscr. heman, the planet Mercury; Sept. Ἀμάν ), a favorite and chief minister or vizier of the king of Persia, whose history is involved in chat of Estherand Mordecai (Esther 3:1 sq.), B.C. 473. (See Ahasuerus). He is called an Agagite; and as Agag was a kind of title of the kings of the Amalekites, (See Agag), it is supposed that Haman was descended from the royal family of that nation (see Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 20). He or his parents probably found their way to Persia as captives or hostages; and that the foreign origin of Haman was no bar to his advancement at court is a circumstance quite in union with the most ancient and still subsisting usages of the East. Joseph, Daniel, and Mordecai afford other examples of the same kind. After the failure of his attempt to cut off all the Jews in the Persian empire, he was hanged on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai. Most probably he is the same Aman who is mentioned as the oppressor of Achiacharus (Tobit 14:10). The Targum and Josephus (Ant. 11, 6, 5) interpret the description of him the Agagite as signifying that he was of Amalekitish descent; but he is called a Macedonian by the Sept. in Esther 9:24 (comp. 3:1), and a Persian by Sulpicius Severus. Prideaux (Connexion, anno 453) commutes the sum which he offered to pay into the royal treasury at more than £2,000,000 sterling. Modern Jews are said to be in the habit of designating any Christian enemy by his name (Eisenmenger, Ent. Jud. 1, 721). The circumstantial details of the height which he attained, and of his sudden downfall, afford, like all the rest of the book of Esther, a most faithful picture of the customs of an Oriental court and government, and furnish invaluable materials for a comparison between the regal usages of ancient and modern times. (See Kitto's Daily Bible Illust. ad loc.). (See [[Book Of Esther]]).

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

An enemy of the Jews in Persia, who persuaded the king to decree the destruction of them against a particular day, but whose purpose was defeated by the reversal of the sentence of doom.