Esther 3:1

1 After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the officials who were with him.

Esther 3:1 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 3:1

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


FOOTNOTES:

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.

Esther 3:1 In-Context

1 After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the officials who were with him.
2 And all the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and did obeisance to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai did not bow down or do obeisance.
3 Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's command?"
4 When they spoke to him day after day and he would not listen to them, they told Haman, in order to see whether Mordecai's words would avail; for he had told them that he was a Jew.
5 When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow down or do obeisance to him, Haman was infuriated.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.