Esther 3:1
Haman’s Plot to Destroy the Jews
Read Esther 3:1 Using Other Translations
What does Esther 3:1 mean?
After these things
After the marriage of Esther, and the discovery of the conspiracy
to take away the king's life, five years after, as Aben Ezra
observe, at least more than four years, for so it appears from (
Esther 3:7 )
did King Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the
Agagite;
whom both the Targums make to descend from Amalek, and to be of
the stock or family of Agag, the common name of the kings of
Amalek; and so Josephus F7; but this is not clear and certain;
in the apocryphal Esther he is said to be a Macedonian; and
Sulpitius the historian says
F8 he was a Persian, which is not improbable; and Agag might be the name of a family or city in Persia, of which he was; and Aben Ezra observes, that some say he is the same with Memucan, see ( Esther 1:14 ) ,
and advanced
him, and set his seat above all the princes that were
with
him;
erected a throne for him, higher than the rest, either of his own
princes and nobles, or such as were his captives, see ( 2 Kings
25:28 ) . It was the custom of the kings of Persia, which it
is probable was derived from Cyrus, to advance those to the
highest seats they thought best deserved it: says he to his
nobles, let there be seats with you as with me, and let the best
be honoured before others;--and again, let all the best of those
present be honoured with seats above others F9.
F7 Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6.) sect.
5.
F8 Hist. Sacr. l. 2. p. 78.
F9 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, l. 8. c.
41.
