And the king said to Haman, “The money is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.”
The king's answer costs him nothing: he gives away his ring, waves off the money, and hands a whole people to a man who hates them. Everything that follows in the book flows from this careless moment.
The Ring
The ring was not a personal keepsake. It stamped the empire's decisions as genuine, so handing it over handed over the power itself.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThen the king gave him his ring. It was a ring for sealing a document. Every ring had a seal. Handing over the royal ring with the royal seal meant handing over royal authority and power to the person who received it. Haman was therefore invested with royal authority. The haughtiness of the king now appears. Not only does he hand over his signet ring, but he also makes Haman a present of the enormous sum he had offered to the king. In cold blood Xerxes gives this unknown people over into the hands of this wicked enemy.
A King Who Would Not Look
Refusing Haman's money may look like restraint. It shows something else: the people meant so little to him that he did not even want paying for them.
H. L. RossierAhasuerus refuses the silver and hands the people over to Haman, "to do with them as it seems good to [him]." What indifference, what a hardened heart we find in this king! The name of Israel has no significance for him. "Do with them as it seems good to you," he says — in other words, do evil and face no punishment!
One writer notes that the offer itself should have made the king suspicious.
Leslie M. GrantSurely the king ought to have realised that Haman had a personal axe to grind. He was ready to pay this huge amount himself to have this people destroyed. But the king clearly had great confidence in this scheming Amalekite, who cared far more for his own reputation than for the Persian kingdom. So the king agreed, and gave Haman freedom to do just as he wanted. It seems strange that the king would consult with the princes about what to do with Vashti, but that here, in a far more serious case, he would act like a dictator!
The Hand Behind Haman
Commentators see more here than one man's grudge. One writer points to the power behind Haman, and to a hatred that had no cause at all.
William KellySatan stirred up the Amalekite to a hatred that wanted God's fallen people wiped out. But He who loved them despite everything would give that hatred the punishment it deserved. It began without cause, against the very people He had openly favoured.
Power Borrowed, Not Owned
Haman now acts, but never in his own name. That makes his private revenge look like the king's own policy — and one writer sees the same pattern returning at the end.
H. L. RossierHaman writes "in the name of king Ahasuerus," and appears to act as his humble servant in matters the king himself has decided and decreed. Similar circumstances will come round again at the time of the end. The Antichrist will make himself the servant of the Roman Beast (Rev. 13:14-16) to carry out his own plans. Haman's satanic scheme begins with the pride and ambition of this man. He would rather crush everything under his feet than see it all subject to Christ.
The Plot That Undid Itself
Nothing in this chapter looks hopeful. Yet the plot carried its own defeat inside it.
William KellyDivine providence delayed the outcome long enough to allow a fresh decree. The first one could not be changed or cancelled. The new decree let the Jews defend themselves and destroy their enemies. But at first no outcome looked less likely; in the end Satan, as always, defeated himself. Haman's argument to the king was plausible. God's people are always an offence to the rest of mankind, just because they are His. The proud and boastful hate them most. This stays true even when their own unfaithfulness costs them His open favour, which is what had happened here.
A Sentence Answered by a Second Decree
The whole nation is now under a legal death sentence. One writer draws out what the two decrees picture together.
Michael HardtHaman accuses the Jewish people before the king, and the book exposes him as "the Jews' enemy"... A royal decree then makes his plan law: all Jews must die. This pictures a divine death sentence on the Jewish nation. How good to know that — as we will see — the king later passes a second decree which overturns the first. The sentence of death turns into life and peace.
Summary
- Ring — the seal was royal authority itself. Giving it away turned Haman's private hatred into law.
- Indifference — the king refused the money because a whole people cost him nothing to give away.
- Enmity — behind Haman stands Satan, stirring a hatred with no cause against the people God had openly favoured.
- Borrowed name — Haman never acts as himself. He signs in the king's name, a pattern one writer expects to see again at the end.
- Reversal — the scheme defeated itself. A second decree turned the sentence of death into life and peace.