If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries.”
Haman has just asked the king to wipe out a whole people, and now he names his price in silver. Why would a man who already had the king's ear offer to pay at all?
The price of a people
Haman knew what a king would ask first. Killing a whole people costs the treasury money. His silver answered that, and did more besides.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHaman, like his dark master, Satan, was cunning enough to anticipate an objection from the king's side. Would the kingdom not lose money if a whole people were wiped out? To remove this financial concern he offers to pay 10,000 talents of silver (about 20 million dollars) for the slaughter of the Jews he wants. With it he tempted the greed of the king. At the same time he flattered the king's pride. He implied that it must be a small thing for him to lose a whole people worth only 10,000 talents. And Haman probably calculated this too: the bigger the sum he offered, the more flattering it would feel to the king to wave it away.
Why the accusation carried
Why would such a plea work at all? The offence was not what these people had done. It was whose they were.
William KellyHaman's plea to the king was plausible. God's people, just because they are His, are always an offence to the rest of mankind, and especially to the proud and boastful. This stays true even when their own unfaithfulness costs them His open favour, as was in fact the case… So Haman proposes their destruction, offering a round sum for the treasury in return.
What the offer gave away
A man willing to pay out of his own pocket has a private motive. The king missed that evidence, though he had taken advice over a much smaller matter.
Leslie M. GrantSurely the king ought to have realised that Haman had a personal axe to grind. Haman would pay this great amount himself to have this people destroyed. But the king had great confidence in this scheming Amalekite. Haman cared far more for his own reputation than for the Persian kingdom… Strangely, the king had consulted his princes about what to do with Queen Vashti (ch. 1:13-15). In this far more serious case he acted like a dictator!
The grudge behind the offer
Grant calls Haman an Amalekite. That name goes back to an old feud.
Morrish Bible DictionaryHe was called "the Agagite," which linked him with the Amalekites, a people who had attacked Israel out of pure malice. God had pronounced unending war against them. That is why Mordecai refused to honour Haman. The refusal so wounded Haman's pride and stirred his anger that he plotted to destroy not only Mordecai but every Jew in the king's lands.
The silver was never needed
The king never took the money. He waved it away and handed over the people instead.
H. L. RossierHaman proposes to enrich the king through this destruction… Ahasuerus refuses the silver. He hands the people over to Haman, "to do with them as seems good to him." What indifference, what a hardened heart we find in this king! The name of Israel has no meaning for him. One of his favourites, a wicked man, matters more to him than the life of a whole nation — and a ruler ought to care for his people!
The unnamed hand behind the deal
Haman had bought his decree. He had not counted on the God who was watching.
Morrish Bible DictionaryHis offer of the immense sum of 10,000 talents of silver ought to have shown the king that he had some sinister end in view… But God was watching over all. On that very night He caused the king to remember what Mordecai had done for him… So God watched over His people in their captivity and made the scheme of their enemy fall on his own head.
Haman is not the first man of his kind.
J. G. BellettThe Agagite now stands out as the representative of the great enemy, the proud rebel who stands against God, His people and His purposes. There has been such a man in every age… Pharaoh, in Egypt; Amalek, in the wilderness; Haman, here in the day of the dispersion; and Herod, in the New Testament. Self-exaltation, godless pride, and defiance of the fear of God, along with deep-rooted hatred of His people, are some or all of the marks on each of them.
Summary
- Bought. Haman offers 10,000 talents to buy a written decree — money aimed at the king's greed and his pride at once.
- Plausible. A separate people always offends the proud. The payment made the murder look like profit.
- Exposed. A man paying his own silver for state policy has a private grudge. It went back to an old feud, and the king should have seen it.
- Waived. The king refused the silver and handed over the people instead. He valued neither.
- Overruled. The scheme fell on the buyer's own head. God was watching all along.