Purim: Haman is falling into the trap
Purim: Haman is falling into the trap
Purim: Haman is falling into the trap
Forensic and Legal Investigation:
Hunting the Hunter
Mordecai Informed Esther Of The News
The king authorized the tax plan and Haman exposed his intentions by publishing the killing decree. As the representative of the people who were violating the king's law, Mordecai became alarmed that Haman would use the authority given by the tax plan to kill him within a short time and not wait eleven months for the scheduled execution date. Thus Mordecai acted swiftly. He mourned to test if Esther still cared for him, and to send the news expeditiously to her. Esther passed the test, demonstrating that she cared about Mordecai. Mordecai gave Hatach a copy of the killing decree (4:8) which revealed to Esther Haman's suggestion regarding, "a sum of silver that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to LABED them" (4:7). Mordecai modified Haman's words, specifying the Jews, even though the Jews were not mentioned in Haman's request, and making it seem as if Haman had offered a bribe to the king. Mordecai omitted: the specific amount; the fact that the people were scattered; and that the king should not let them be left alone, because he wanted Esther to worry about her own safety as if the king had become a hater of the Jews.[1] From Mordecai's presentation, Hatach was unable to understand that there was a conflict between the king's authorization and Haman's decree. The fact that Mordecaiwho did not attend that meeting between the king and Hamanknew about the silver and used the word LABDM ("") and the word for payment ("") exactly as Haman had used them, indicates that he had informers in the king's chamber and he was privy to all that went on there.
Esther Was Trying To Avoid Getting Involved
In accordance with the royal custom, every person who appeared before the king without being invited was risking a capital punishment (4:11).[2] Esther, who regarded herself as a concubine waiting for an invitation, naively thought that she was subject to this strict law too (2:14). All that Esther needed to do was to go to the king and beg for her people's lifethese actions were actually what Mordecai ordered Esther to do (4:8). This was to some degree similar to her actions when she exposed Bigthan and Teresh (2:22).[3] Esther did not see the urgency in the killing decree that was scheduled almost a year later; she believed it gave the Jews plenty of time to prepare and join forces for their defense. Esther responded to Mordecai that she had "not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days" (4:11). It is not clear if she was hinting that the king might not prefer her anymore, or that there was no need to rush and take the risk, because in a short time, she would be called to the king in accordance with her visitation schedule.[4] Esther was afraid to show the killing decree to the king because, in doing so, she would expose that she was Jewish and, if he had become a hater of the Jews, be subject to the king's rage, expose the king's mistake in public, risk her life if Mordecai's informers had made a mistake, or cause Haman to attack the king right there and then.[5] Esther's response enraged Mordecai and his answer was a horrendous and swift attack (4:14):
1. Mordecai warned Esther that: "relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place" (4:14); relief was within his power but, as he'd given her the opportunity to be credited for saving the king once, he was now presenting her with a second opportunity.
2. Mordecai cursed her father's family with death: "thou and thy father's house will perish"; but by doing so, he told the orphaned Esther that he himself, a relative of her father, was in danger of imminent death.
3. Mordecai instructed her to start acting like a queen"thou art not come to royal estate"as she was taught by Hegai, and to stop thinking like a concubine.
Esther Understood Mordecai's Explanation
Mordecai refused to explain his actions to Esther's maidens (Est. 4:4), but he did keep Esther informed via Hatach, "one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her" (4:1,5). Hatach heard a simple story: Haman asked to destroy the Jews; the king ordered their destruction; Esther was afraid to approach the king and beg for mercy and she asked the Jews to fast on her behalf. Such an explanation did not provide any incentive for Hatach to inform the king or Haman about this conversation.
Esther's reaction proves to us that she understood Mordecai's instructions. She realized that Haman's request and the killing order contradicted one another; otherwise Mordecai would not have informed her of Haman's request. On one hand, she read that the killing decree was calling "to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish [LABD]" (3:15); and on the other hand, she heard the homophonic word LABDM (bad - kill destroy and bad - enslave). The fact that Haman had to explain the word indicates that it was not clear, and that the king did not employ the same meaning as intended in the killing decree. The connotation, "scattered," was not reasonable because the Jews are already scattered all over the kingdom. Thus, selling into slavery was the more reasonable definition of the word.
Esther did not follow Mordecai's order (4:8), but thought of performing a plan that mimicked Mordecai's actions. He dressed in sack; she dressed in royal attire. He verified that Esther respected him; she verified that the king still loved her. He mourned and fasted; she prepared a banquet. He refused to explain the reason for his "bitter cry" (4:1) at Esther's first request, via her maidens, but did so in the second instance; twice, she refused to explain "her request" (5:3) to the king and did so only after his third appeal. Mordecai attacked Esther for acting as a concubine; she attacked the king for selling his reign.
Esther's plan was to verify the validity of the killing decree by exposing Haman's action to the king, thus letting the king confront and observe Haman's response. In order to protect the king's reputation and safety, Esther arranged the confrontation in her room in the harem. Esther worried that some of the king's guards were loyal to Haman; thus, she had to keep all the king's guards outside the room. Esther was confident that with sufficient wine, she, the king, and Hatach (who was in hiding) would be able to overcome Haman's violent response. Thus, Esther ordered Mordecai to follow her plan: he and the Jews of Shushan needed to fast for three days.[6] The three-day delay gave Esther time to prepare a banquet suitable for the royal king, to see if Hatach would report the conversation about her being a Jew to the king or Haman, and to verify if Mordecai still had the authority and ability to order the Jews to fast.
Esther Became A Genuine Queen
The location of the banquet was selected as the queen's chamber in the harem (5:4).[7] The harem was a building that was secured so that no one could escape or enter it without permission. It was an unfamiliar place for Haman and he was hard pressed to mount a resistance. And there, before the end of the third day of the fast, in broad sunlight, Esther appeared before the king wearing her magnificent royal garments and crown, and invited the king to her banquet that she'd arranged for him in her room.[8] The king, who was used to celebrating with Haman, rushed Haman to join him, and both attended the banquet (5:5).
Haman Entered The Trap
It is possible that during the three days of fasting, Mordecai did not serve at his post at the king's gate (4:2,16); and, consequently, Haman happily believed that his problem was resolved. It is possible that Haman hoped that: Mordecai was killed by the Jews (Sheba, the son of Bichri); ran away (Jacob); committed suicide (Ahithophel); or died from a heart attack (Nabal the Carmelite). Haman did not suspect that the queen was risking her life in a situation that involved himself.[9] He did not spy on Mordecai. His fate was sealed when he was served a subpoena to appear in the second banquet and the witness to the service was the king himself (5:5).[10] It is possible that Esther hoped that Haman would leave town, and then she would safely present her case in absentia.
Haman Seeks Comfort From His Wife
After the first banquet, Haman was on his way home, feeling content, when he witnessed Mordecai sitting fixed and solemn, at the gate. By his actions, it was as if Mordecai was declaring that Haman had ceased to exist (5:9). Levinson explained that this displayed an increase in Mordecai's disrespect for Haman.[11] Mordecai's initial justification, that he would not kneel because of his religion, lost its validity; there was no new explanation for such intensified contempt. Haman restrained himself in public, until he got home. At home he could not control himself and, for the first time, he revealed to his wife and friends (5:10) his hatred for Mordecai the Jew, who sat at the king's gate (5:13). He told his wife and friends how he had amassed vast wealth, and been promoted above the other ministers and the king's slaves. He boasted about the great honor of being the lone invitee to the queen's banquet with the king (5:12). But Haman did not discuss the honor that the king's dignitaries, at the gate, displayed to him by kneeling before him; nor did he recount how the king's signet enabled him to procure decrees in the king's name. He was afraid that they might comprehend how he had usurped the king's power. Haman's wife who probably knew about the killing decree that was published in the city, and understood that the decree declared the king's hatred of the Jews was eager to advise her husband to punish Mordecai for his offence of dishonoring Haman.She instructed Haman to make an official new hanging tree "fifty cubits high," and continued ordering Haman without showing proper respect for either the king or her husband.[12] In the presence of their friends, she ordered Haman to tell the king to hang Mordecai on the tree (5:14). His wife did not explain why a new tree should be used, as it was obvious that there were no lack of hanging trees in town (2:23).
The moment his wife advised him, Haman was trapped. He could not explain why he hadn't thought of this simple solution before; he had to do as she said. Haman preferred to build the tree in his own yard, outside the control of the king's people. But suddenly, Haman understoodas Mordecai fearedthat it was possible to request permission from the king, based on the tax plan that the king had authorized, to hang Mordecai as the leader of the tax evaders, even without naming him. Haman failed to recognize that the act of building an official hanging tree might be interpreted as subversion under the king's sovereignty.
Mordecai Activated An Alternative Defense Plan
Later in the story, we see that Harvona, one of the king's chamberlains, was fully aware of the tree. For no apparent reason, this chamberlain praised Mordecai. I will try to prove that there was an informer in Haman's house who told Mordecai about Haman's wife's suggestion. In response, Mordecai initiated a plan to prevent Haman's strategy from working.[13] This was the plan Mordecai told Esther about, the one he held in hand just in case (4:14). The plan was to arrange for Harvona to remind the king about the incident when Mordecai saved his life. Haman requested that Mordecai be killed; Harvona was to inform the king about the subversive hanging tree that Haman erected outside his house with the purpose of killing a loyal dignitary of the king. We can see that Harvona worked for Mordecai because:
1. He demonstrated that he received inside information when he quoted Haman's wife's statement, verbatim, and knew the exact purpose of the tree.[14]
2. He proved that he was involved in the nightly communication, with the king, about Mordecai (7:9).
3. He risked his life when he charged Haman as a traitor, and proudly pronounced his failure to protect the king and prevent the king from attending the dangerous banquet.
It was Mordecai's plan, and not luck, that had been on Mordecai's side. After all, what were the chances that just before Haman arrived to request the king's permission to hang Mordecai, the king would have trouble sleeping . . . and that his servants[15] would read about Mordecai saving the king's life just before dawn some 1000 nights ago? Those chances are too small to be considered a reasonable possibility.
There are other explanations for Harvona's knowledge and we will try to rebuff them:
1. The tree was very large and seen outside of Haman's house.
Answer: it was very difficult to accurately guess the height of a tree that was about seven floors high, far above Haman's house. As Prof. Adele Berlin stated, the tree did not look like a hanging or crucifying tree, but was more suitable for flying a flag.[16]
2. Haman's rage and intention to kill Mordecai was known in town.
Answer: Haman restrained himself and did not expose his anger until he got home. If the town's people knew about Haman's feelings, then why did Mordecai sit comfortably in the king's gate in the morning (6:12)?[17] And why did Esther's maidensnot warnher about Haman's plan (4:4)?
3. Harvona received the information as part of his duties to protect the king.
Answer: Harvona did not inform the king about the strife between Haman and Mordecai, or the killing decree, and did not prevent the king from going to the dangerous banquet.[18]
4. Harvona was collecting information for himself.
Answer: Harvona was just one of the king's guards, and there was no indication he had any other duties, or time to perform them.
5. Harvona was working in the service of someone else.
Answer: Mordecai was the only person who exposed Bigthan and Terash, was the only person who did not kneel before Haman, and was the only person who was awarded Haman's position. So, even if there was another person who gave Harvona instructions, that person also was working for Mordecai.
6. Harvona received the vital information from the guards who rushed Haman to the banquet after the parade.
Answer: If Harvona was already aware of such information, then repeating it was of no value. If Harvona did not know, then why didn't he prevent the king from attending the banquet with Haman?
By examining the preponderance of the evidence, we see that the actions of Harvona demonstrate his believe that he and Mordecai were loyal to the king; and, he diligently followed Mordecai's instructions, informing the king only when the situation justified it.
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Bibliography
Berlin A., Esther, The JPS Bible Commentary, The Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 2001.
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus, Translated by George Rawlinson.
Levenson J. D., Esther: a commentary, London: Westminster John Knox Press,1997.
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[1] In the book of record it was written that Mordecai saved the king's life, but it was not written that he was a Jew (2:22,6:2). Nevertheless, the king knew that Mordecai was Jewish and that he sat at the king's gate (6:10).
[2] Herodotus, The History of Herodotus. Book III 84.
[3] In the matter of Bigthan and Teresh, Esther waited for the king's invitation to warn him. It might be that the danger was not great or imminent, if at all.
[4] Herodotus, The History of Herodotus. Book III 69. The Persians had a schedule for the women.
[5] Mordecai knew everything, and as we see later, Esther's fears were not justified.
[6] It is possible that Esther did not fast with the Jews during the three days, as it was not the proper time to announce her Jewishness and to weaken her body.
[7] Brown, Hebrew and English Lexicon, "" Pg. 1059, celebratory banquet coronation, wedding, salvation and triumph.
[8] The king demanded that any suggestion brought to him would be ready to be executed. Thus we should not fault Haman for setting the killing day and for preparing the tree before approaching the king.
[9] It is possible that, as Mordecai believed that Esther was not at risk, Haman thought this, as well.
[10] The king did not respond in words to Esther's invitation to attend the second banquet, because Esther asked that an action be taken, not for a verbal promise; but Haman thought that the king agreed (5:12).
[11] Levenson, Esther: a commentary. Pg. 91-92
[12] Brown, Hebrew and English Lexicon, "" Pg. 56, "" Pg. 57 describe an order.
The word "say" ("") is used as two verbs: use your mouth to say a statement. When Vashti instructed Haman to tell the king, she demanded that her husband order the king; thus, she did not show the proper respect to either of them.
[13] Because there were many friends in Haman's house, the informer did not fear detection.
[14] An expert statistician could calculate the small chance of Harvona voicing the exact four words that Vashti used, when numerous other phrases that can say the same thing.
[15] These are the same "king's servants" (2:2) that their advice paved the way for Esther's coronation.
[16] Berlin, Esther, The JPS Bible Commentary. Pg. 55.
[17] "And Mordecai returned to the king's gate" (6:12)this means that Haman took him from the king's gate, so he could return after the parade.
[18] It is possible to claim that Harvona failed in his duties to protect the king; but, in acknowledging Esther's claims that she was alone with Haman, it is possible to understand that Harvona was confident that Hatach would protect the king in the room (and Hatach's job was to watch the other guards outside the room).
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