Esther 3 is the third chapter of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The author of the book is unknown and modern scholars have established that the final stage of the Hebrew text would have been formed by the second century BCE. Chapters 3 to 8 contain the nine scenes that form the complication in the book. This chapter introduces Haman the Agagite, who is linked by his genealogy to King Agag, the enemy of Israel's King Saul, from whose father, Kish, Mordecai was descended. The kingAhasuerus elevated Haman to a high position in the court, and ordered everyone to bow down to him, but Mordecai refuses to do so to Haman, which is connected to Mordecai's Jewish identity ; this indirectly introduced the religious dimension of the story. Haman reacted by a vast plan to destroy not simply Mordecai, but his entire people, getting the approval from the king to arrange for a particular date of genocide, selected by casting a lot, or pur to fall on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar. The chapter ends with the confused reaction of the whole city ofSusa due to the decree.
Haman's promotion and Mordecai's refusal to honor him (3:1–6)
Shifting the focus from Esther and Mordecai, this section describes Haman the Agagite which would be "the enemy of the Jews". Haman's displeasure of Mordecai's refusal to bow down to him turns into an evil design to wipe out the whole people of Mordecai.
Verse 1
"Did… promote": or from Hebrew "made great"; NAB "raised…to high rank"; NIV “honored.” The promotion of Haman here has a striking irony to the contribution of Mordecai to saving the king’s life, which goes unnoticed.
Verse 4
"Mordecai": a name that reflects the name of the Babylonian deity Marduk; a possible common custom of many Jews at that time to have 'two names: one for secular use and the other for use especially within the Jewish community', but there is no record of Mordecai’s Jewish name in the biblical text.
Verse 6
"Disdained": Hebrew: "disdained in his eyes".
"Destroy": or "annihilate".
Haman's plot against the Jews gains the king's consent (3:7–15)
Haman carried out his design by first casting lots to choose the suitable day for execution and then persuading the king to issue a decree to assure the implementation of it.
Verse 7
"The twelfth year of king Ahasuerus": This year refers to ca. 474 BC.
"Pur": The term פּוּר is an Akkadian loanword, so the narrator explains it in Hebrew . The plural form of this word later refers to the festival celebrating the deliverance of the Jews. The Greek historian Herodotus attested the casting of lots to determine a suitable day for carrying out a task by an astrologer among the Persians.
Verse 9
"Talent": Each was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms. By comparing the value of 10,000 talents of silver to the annual income of the Persian empire, which according to Herodotus was "14,500 Euboic talents", it seems that Haman is offering the king a bribe equal to two-thirds of the royal income. Doubtless this huge sum of money would come from the anticipated confiscation of Jewish property and assets once the Jews had been annihilated. The mentioned large sum of money may indicate 'something of the economic standing of the Jewish population in the empire of King Ahasuerus'.
