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HAMAN

(Heb. hāmān)

A character in the book of Esther who is identified as the most important of the courtiers in the Persian court of King Ahasuerus (Esth. 3:1). He is identified as a descendant of Agag, thus foreshadowing his conflict with Mordecai, who as a Benjaminite is linked to the line of Saul (cf. 1 Sam. 15). In the face of Mordecai’s refusal to kneel or bow to him, Haman devises a pogrom against all Persian Jews and persuades the king to agree to the plan by explaining that a “certain people” exists unassimilated in the kingdom (Esth. 3:6, 10). By means of some very subtle maneuvering, Esther and Mordecai are able to align themselves with the king and against Haman. It is not clear whether Haman falls from the king’s graces because it is revealed that this “certain people” is in fact the Jews and that Queen Esther is also a Jew, or because the king suspects Haman of advances upon the queen. In either case, Haman is impaled upon the very stake on which he intended to impale Mordecai, and his planned pogrom is thwarted (Esth. 7:10).

Bibliography. T. K. Beal, The Book of Hiding: Gender, Ethnicity, Annihilation and Esther (London, 1997).

Tod Linafelt

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HAMAN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)