Estherchapter 3
15 verses · unknown · 5th century BC · History
In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman to determine a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.
Introduction
unknown, History, Esther Overview.
This chapter was written for Jews who had grown up hearing that Amalek was Israel's oldest enemy. It introduces the man who will try to destroy them, and it traces his hatred to a quarrel much older than himself. The chapter shows how a government can plan the death of a whole people through ordinary paperwork. Listen for the family names each man is given, because a first hearer knew their history at once. Notice who is consulted about the date and who is never asked about the plan. The chapter ends in two places at once, and the contrast between them is its last word.
Context
- Who
- Jews who had heard all their lives that Amalek was Israel's oldest enemy
- What
- Haman the Agagite is raised above the king's nobles, is refused a bow by Mordecai, and obtains a royal decree to destroy every Jew in the empire.
- Where
- The king's gate at Susa, the room where the royal scribes drafted decrees, and every province the couriers reached.
- When
- The first month of the twelfth year of Ahasuerus, about 474 BC.
- Why
- To show how the threat to the Jews arose from an old enmity and was set in motion by the machinery of the state.
Historical context
Haman is called an Agagite, and Mordecai is a Benjamite descended from Kish. Every Jewish hearer caught that instantly. Agag was the Amalekite king Saul son of Kish was ordered to destroy and spared, and the Amalekites were the people who attacked Israel's stragglers in the wilderness. This is not two officials clashing over protocol; it is the last round of a feud that started centuries earlier.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Bowing to a superior was ordinary Persian courtesy, not worship, so refusing it was not a religious duty as such, which is why the text ties the refusal to Mordecai telling them he was a Jew. He was taking a stand on ancestry, and Haman answered in kind by going after the whole people rather than the one man.
The lot Haman casts is called by its Persian name, pur. It was a physical object, small cubes and pyramids of inscribed clay used to pick dates and duties. One from Assyria survives with the word for 'lot' written on it, and it names the year its owner's turn came round. Haman throws it in the first month and it falls on the twelfth, handing his enemies eleven months of warning; a superstitious man takes that as the gods' timing.
The offer of ten thousand talents of silver is staggering, and hearers who knew the empire would have felt it. Herodotus lists the yearly tribute of the whole Persian empire at under fifteen thousand talents, Haman is offering roughly two-thirds of imperial revenue, presumably to be recovered from the property of the dead. The decree then travels by the royal courier system to every province in its own script and language, which is exactly how Persian administration is known to have worked.
Significance
For the first hearers this was not ancient history. Their people had lived under an execution order before, and would again. The chapter names the machinery precisely: a grudge, a bribe, a signet ring pressed into clay, and a whole nation scheduled for death by administrative routine while the king and his favourite sit down to drink.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The date is the sting. The killing is set for the thirteenth of Adar, and the lot that chose it gave the Jews almost a year. The book does not say who guided the die. It does not have to.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Haman is named in the first verse of this chapter, and from here on the custom best known from Purim is heard in the room. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records that his name stands in the scroll about fifty-four times. In Ashkenazi practice the room answers it with noisemakers, stamping and shouting. The noise comes after the reader has said the name, so that nothing is drowned and nothing has to be read again. Sephardi and Mizrahi communities keep the day with much less noise or none, and the custom varies from one congregation to the next.
The table names its source for the custom as the Rema's gloss to Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 690:17, which records the custom of blotting out the name and defends it as an old one. For the reading of the whole scroll it cites Mishnah Megillah 2 and Babylonian Talmud Megillah 18a.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The edition prints its own numbered notes inside his words, and a note is named here as the edition's. He opens with a rule about how God works in this book. "For the Holy One Blessed Is He, creates a remedy for Yisroel’s blow before He brings the blow upon them" (Rashi on Esther 3:1:2). The edition's note names Maseches Megillah 13b. The note before it reads the opening words of the chapter the same way, as a remedy made ready as a salvation for Israel (Rashi on Esther 3:1:1).
Mordechai's refusal to bow is read as a refusal of idolatry. Haman made himself a god, Rashi says (Rashi on Esther 3:2:1), and Mordechai said he would never bow because he was a Jew, warned against idolatry (Rashi on Esther 3:4:1). The edition's notes set two traditions beside it. Ibn Ezra held that Haman's robes carried idols. Esther Rabbah 7:8 tells of Haman saying that Mordechai's fathers bowed to Esau, Haman's ancestor. Mordechai answered that he came from Benjamin, who was born after that meeting and never bowed.
The lot of the seventh verse is glossed in two notes. The verse does not say who cast it (Rashi on Esther 3:7:1). The word pur means a lot, and Haman cast lots to find the month in which he would succeed (Rashi on Esther 3:7:2). The date the lot fixed Rashi states plainly, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month of the year (Rashi on Esther 3:13:2).
Haman's charge against the people is read closely. The king's laws they would not keep were the taxes for the king's work (Rashi on Esther 3:8:1). The giving of the ring meant the granting of any great matter asked of the king (Rashi on Esther 3:10:1). The edition's note there reports Maseches Megillah 14a. "The king’s removal of his ring was more effective than the forty-eight prophets sent by God to admonish the Jews." It led the people to repent and fast three days. The note at the ninth verse reports Esther Rabbah 7:13, where many Jews went to the king's feast against Mordechai's warning (Rashi on Esther 3:9:1).
The corpus carries ten further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Esther 3:2:1, 3:4:1, 3:9:1, 3:11:1 and 3:12:1, and at Malbim on Esther 3:5:1, 3:6:1, 3:10:1, 3:11:1 and 3:12:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Thirty-three are Midrash and seven are Talmud. On the first verse, Haman's promotion, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:12, Bereshit Rabbah 44:17 and Esther Rabbah 7:1. On the second, the refusal to bow, it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 14 with Esther Rabbah 10:13 and 6:2. Esther Rabbah 7:8 stands on the third. On the fourth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 87:6, Esther Rabbah 7:7 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 39:10:1.
The link to Jacob and Esau runs through the next verses. On the fifth the corpus holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 48, Esther Rabbah 7:9 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayishlach 19:1. On the sixth it holds Megillah 13b:14, Midrash Lekach Tov on Esther, Introduction 1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 25:34:4. On the seventh, the lot, it holds Esther Rabbah 7:11 with Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:5:6 and 1:5:7.
Haman's charge and the decree carry the rest. On the eighth verse the corpus holds Esther Rabbah 7:12, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 7:3:9 and Megillah 13b:16. On the ninth it holds Esther Rabbah 6:1, 7:13 and 7:19. On the tenth, the ring, it holds Esther Rabbah 7:20, Esther Rabbah, Petichta 1 and Megillah 14a:3. On the eleventh it holds Esther Rabbah 7:21 and Megillah 13b:22, and on the twelfth Bereshit Rabbah 100:6 with Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 37. On the thirteenth it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 7:10 and Bereshit Rabbah 42:3. On the fourteenth it holds Esther Rabbah 7:24 and Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version I 1:11. On the fifteenth it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayeshev 7 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 1:12. Two more stand under anchors the corpus prints as the seventeenth and eighteenth, Midrash Tanchuma, Bo 6:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria 11:1. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Esther 3:1:1 to 3:15:1, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Esther 3:2:1, 3:4:1, 3:9:1, 3:11:1 and 3:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Esther 3:5:1, 3:6:1, 3:10:1, 3:11:1 and 3:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/esther/3.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the FESTIVAL_READINGS entry for esther at Purim citing Mishnah Megillah 2, Babylonian Talmud Megillah 18a and the Rema's gloss to Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 690:17, and no portion or Haftarah for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Mordecai will not bow, and Haman is full of wrath
Esther 3:1-2
King Xerxes honored Haman: Haman is raised "above all the princes who were with him," and the text gives no reason. It names him "the Agagite," and 1 Samuel 15:8 names Agag king of Amalek. The servants at the gate bow to Haman, and Mordecai "would not bow down or pay homage".
Esther 3:1
“After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman . . . set his seat above all the princes--that is, raised him to the rank of vizier, or prime confidential minister, whose pre-eminence in office and power appeared in the elevated state chair appropriated to that supreme functionary. Such a distinction in seats was counted of vast importance in the formal court of Persia.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Esther 3:1
“Agagite - An Amalekite of the royal seed of that nation, whose kings were successively called Agag. All the princes - Gave him the first place and seat, which was next to the king.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Esther 3:1
“The name, Haman, is probably the same as the Classical Omanes, and in ancient Persian, “Umana”, an exact equivalent of the Greek “Eumenes.” Hammedatha is perhaps the same as “Madata” or “Mahadata”, an old Persian name signifying “given by (or to) the moon.” The Agagite - The Jews generally understand by this expression “the descendant of Agag,” the Amalekite monarch of 1 Sam. 15. Haman, however, by his own name, and the names of his sons Est 9:7-9 and his father, would seem to have been a genuine Persian.”
All the royal servants at the king’s gate: The royal servants at the king’s gate were officers of the court, and Adam Clarke counts Mordecai among them. The homage was a prostration, and John Wesley recalls that the Greeks refused it even to the Persian kings. Mordecai refused it among his own fellow servants.
Esther 3:2
“The king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate - By servants here, certainly a higher class of officers are intended than porters; and Mordecai was one of those officers, and came to the gate with the others who were usually there in attendance to receive the commands of the king.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Esther 3:2
“I wonder what the king saw in Haman that was commendable or meritorious; it is plain that he was not a man of honour or justice, of any true courage or steady conduct, but proud, and passionate, and revengeful; yet was he promoted, and caressed, and there was none so great as he.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 3:2
“And that a Jew should deny this honour, is not strange, seeing the wise Grecians did positively refuse to give this honour to the kings of Persia themselves, even when they were to make their addresses to them: and one Timocrates was put to death by the Athenians for worshipping Darius in that manner.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Esther 3:3-4
Then the royal servants: The servants ask Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the command of the king?" They warn him daily until he tells them "he was a Jew". The older commentators divide: many read the old enmity with Amalek, and others a refusal to give a man honor due to God.
Esther 3:3
“Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate,.... Observing the behaviour of Mordecai towards Haman from time to time: said unto Mordecai, why transgressest thou the king's commandment? of giving reverence to Haman, which they knew he could not be ignorant of.”
Day after day they warned him: Mordecai had told the servants he was a Jew. Albert Barnes reads their report to Haman as a test of whether that plea would be tolerated as grounds to disobey the king’s command. John Wesley adds that the plea tied the refusal to every Jew in the kingdom.
Esther 3:4
“Whether Mordecai’s matters would stand - Rather, “whether Mordecai’s words would hold good” - whether, that is, his excuse, that he was a Jew, would be allowed as a valid reason for his refusal.”
Esther 3:5-7
When Haman saw that Mordecai: Haman "was filled with rage," and when he learns Mordecai's people he "scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone". In Nisan, "the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman," and it fell on Adar, eleven months away. The long delay gives the rescue its time.
Esther 3:5
“And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence,.... For, after the information given him, he observed and watched him, to see whether he bowed and did him reverence or not: then was Haman full of wrath; exceedingly displeased and angry; it was such a mortification to him he could not bear.”
1 more voice on this verse
Esther 3:5
“It is soon resolved that Mordecai must die. The head must come off that will not bow to Haman; if he cannot have his honours, he will have his blood. It is as penal in this court not to worship Haman as it was in Nebuchadnezzar's not to worship the golden image which he had set up.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s: Wesley reads the scorn as pride: Haman judged vengeance on Mordecai alone beneath his rank. His plan to destroy a people had precedent in Persia. Barnes points to the Magophonia, the massacre of the Magi at the accession of Darius, an event under fifty years old and kept every year.
Esther 3:6
“Scorn - He thought that vengeance was unsuitable to his quality. Destroy - Which he attempted, from that implacable hatred which, as an Amalekite, he had against them; from his rage against Mordecai; and from Mordecai's reason of this contempt, because he was a Jew, which as he truly judged, extended itself to all the Jews, and would equally engage them all in the same neglect.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Esther 3:6
“To destroy all the Jews - In the East massacres of a people, a race, a class, have at all times been among the incidents of history, and would naturally present themselves to the mind of a statesman. The Magophonia, or the great massacre of the Magi at the accession of Darius Hystaspis, was an event not then fifty years old, and was commemorated annually. A massacre of the Scythians had occurred about a century previously.”
The lot is cast, and a people's life is priced at ten thousand talents
In the twelfth year of King Xerxes: Barnes describes the method: a lot was cast for each day and each month, and the best throws fixed the date. Clarke notes the Greek text adds the day, the fourteenth of Adar, where the decree of verse 13 names the thirteenth. Both men take Pur for a Persian word.
Esther 3:7
“In the first month ... - i. e. in March or April of 474 B.C. “Pur” is supposed to be an old Persian word etymologically connected with the Latin “pars”, and signifying “part” or “lot.” The practice of casting lots to obtain a lucky day still obtains in the East, and is probably extremely ancient. A lot seems to have been cast, or a throw of some kind made, for each day of the month and each month of the year. The day and month which obtained the best throws were then selected.”
2 more voices on this verse
Esther 3:7
“He that believeth the lot, much more that believeth the promise, will not make haste. But see how God's wisdom serves its own purposes by men's folly. Haman has appealed to the lot, and to the lot he shall go, which, by adjourning the execution, gives judgment against him and breaks the neck of the plot.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 3:7
“Wherein appears likewise both his implacable malice, and unwearied diligence in seeking vengeance of them with so much trouble to himself; and God's singular providence in disposing the lot to that time, that the Jews might have space to get the decree reversed.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Esther 3:8-9
Then Haman informed King Xerxes: Haman sets out his case: "a certain people scattered and dispersed," who "do not obey the king’s laws". He never names the people, and the king never asks. He offers "ten thousand talents of silver", a sum the commentators count among the largest named in the ancient world.
Esther 3:8
“Their laws are diverse from all people - Such they certainly were; for they worshipped the true God according to his own laws; and this was not done by any other people then on the face of the earth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
If it pleases the king, let a decree: Haman had just told the king these people were no profit, and now he offers to cover the loss their deaths would cause. Clarke and Henry read the silver as the answer to the king’s likely objection, his lost revenue. Barnes puts it above two thirds of a year’s revenue.
Esther 3:9
“Ten thousand talents of silver - According to Herodotus, the regular revenue of the Persian king consisted of 14,560 silver talents; so that, if the same talent is intended, Haman’s offer would have exceeded two-thirds of one year’s revenue (or two and one-half million British pound sterling). Another Persian subject, Pythius, once offered to present Xerxes with four millions of gold darics, or about four and one-half pounds.”
1 more voice on this verse
Esther 3:9
“This, he thought, would be a powerful inducement to the king to consent, and would obviate the strongest objection against him, which was that the government must needs sustain loss in its revenues by the destruction of so many of its subjects; so great a sum, he hoped, would be equivalent for that.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 3:10-11
the king removed the signet ring: The king gives his signet ring to "Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews," the name the narrator fixes on him. With the ring he hands over the people as well: "These people are given to you to do with them as you please".
Esther 3:10
“And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. As a token of his affection for him, and a mark of honour to him; with the Persians (w) for a king to give a ring to anyone was a token and bond of the greatest love and friendship imaginable; and it may be this was given to Haman, to seal with it the letters that were or should be written, giving order for the destruction of the Jews.”
2 more voices on this verse
Esther 3:10
“The king took his ring - In this ring was no doubt included his privy seal, and he gave this to Haman, that when he had formed such a decree as he thought fit, he might seal it with this ring, which would give it its due force and influence among the rulers of the provinces. The privy seal of many of our sovereigns appears to have been inserted in their rings; and the seals of Eastern potentates were worn in rings upon their fingers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 3:10
“Miserable is the kingdom that is at the disposal of such a head as this, which has one ear only, and a nose to be led by, but neither eyes nor brains, nor scarcely a tongue of its own.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep your money,” said the king: The king’s words about the silver are read two ways. Gill takes them as a refusal of Haman’s ten thousand talents, a show of royal generosity. Albert Barnes reads a grant to Haman of the possessions of the Jews to be killed, the plunder the decree of verse 13 allows.
Esther 3:11
“And the king said unto Haman, the silver is given unto thee,.... The 10,000 talents of silver Haman proposed to pay into the treasury were returned to him, or the king out of his great munificence refused to take them: the people also, to do with them as seemeth good unto thee; that is, the people of the Jews; he gave him full power to do with them as he thought fit, and who breathing revenge upon them, would not spare them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Esther 3:11
“The silver is given to thee - Some understand this to mean that Xerxes refused the silver which Haman had offered to him; but the passage is better explained as a grant to him of all the property of such Jews as should be executed Est 3:13.”
The posts ride out while the king and Haman sit down to drink
Esther 3:12-13
On the thirteenth day: The scribes write Haman's order in every script and language, "sealed with the royal signet ring". The decree is exact: "to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews," on "a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar". Keil notes that the date is the one the lot chose at 3:7.
Esther 3:12
“Then were the king's scribes called . . . and there was written--The government secretaries were employed in making out the proclamation authorizing a universal massacre of the Jews on one day. It was translated into the dialects of all the people throughout the vast empire, and swift messengers were sent to carry it into all the provinces.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Esther 3:12
“No crime is laid to their charge; it is not pretended that they were obnoxious to the public justice, nor is any condition offered, upon performance of which they might have their lives spared; but die they must, without mercy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 3:12
“Unto the king’s lieutenants - אחשדרפני achashdarpeney. This is in all probability another Persian word, for there is nothing like it in the Hebrew language, nor can it be fairly deduced from any roots in that tongue. The Vulgate translates ad omnes satrapas regis, to all the satraps of the king.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
And the letters were sent by couriers: The order to plunder their possessions gave every man in the provinces a reason to kill a Jew, as Clarke notes. Henry observes that the letters name no crime and offer no terms for the lives of the people. Barnes notes the Jews later kept that day as a fast.
Esther 3:13
“Present, the Jews keep three days - the 13th, the 14th, and the 15th of Adar - as connected with “the Feast of Purim;” but they make the 13th a fast, commemorative of the fast of Esther Est 4:16, and keep the feast itself on the 14th and 15th of Adar.”
Esther 3:14-15
A copy of the text: The chapter closes on two clauses: "the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was in confusion". The narrator adds no comment. The book, which never names God, leaves the city's distress to speak for itself.
Esther 3:14
“The copy of the writing, for a commandment to be given in every province, was published unto all people,.... Not only letters were sent to the governors, but a copy, or the sum of the contents of them, was published by heralds, or stuck up as with us, in various places, that it might be publicly known by the common people everywhere: that they should be ready against that day; and fall upon the people of the Jews, and slay them, and seize on their goods as a prey.”
The couriers left, spurred on by the king’s: The whole city of Susa shared the confusion of the Jews. Barnes credits the Persians of the city, followers of Zoroaster, with sympathy for the Jews. Clarke adds that a mob given leave to plunder one people would plunder Persians too, and that many families of Susa had married Jews.
Esther 3:15
“Shushan was perplexed - Susa was now the capital of Persia, and the main residence of the Persians of high rank. These, being attached to the religion of Zoroaster, would naturally sympathize with the Jews, and be disturbed at their threatened destruction. Even apart from this bond of union, the decree was sufficiently strange and ominous to “perplex” thoughtful citizens.”
1 more voice on this verse
Esther 3:15
“This cursed method many take to drown their convictions, and harden their own hearts and the hearts of others in sin. The city was very sad upon it (and the other cities of the kingdom, no doubt, when they had notice of it): The city Shushan was perplexed, not only the Jews themselves, but all their neighbours that had any principles of justice and compassion.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).