Nadene Goldfoot
Xerxes I c. 518 – August 465 BCE), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BCE until his assassination in 465 BCE. He was the son of Darius the Great and Atossa, a daughter of Cyrus the Great.
The Persian king in the Biblical Book of Esther is commonly thought to be Xerxes.
King Xerxes or as we read of him, Ahasueros, the famous king of the Persian Empire, had made Haman a Chief Minister of his. He was called the "Agagite" which indicated his descent from Agag, king of Amalek.
They were an ancient people existing no more, but who were mentioned several times in the Bible, who were always hostile to the people of Israel, even while they were on the Exodus. They would attack the last people who were slower moving or older.
The Amalekites were a nomadic folk themselves wandering between Southern Eretz Yisrael and Canaan. They also attacked the Israelites in the desert near Rephidim shortly after the Exodus, annihilating the weak and weary again. Finally, they were defeated by the Israelite army under Joshua (Exod.7:8-13; Deut. 25: 17-19). To know the origin of the Amalekites, we must first understand their father, Amalek. And to do that… we must understand his father, Esau. Esau was a twin of Jacob, who tricked Esau out of his birthright and blessing—he’d rightfully earned as the oldest son. (from Christian source) Amalek is described in Genesis 36:16 as the "chief of Amalek" among the "chiefs of the sons of Esau", from which it is surmised that he ruled a clan or territory named after him.
Israel consequently regarded Amalekites as an eternal foe, the extermination of which was a national mission (Exod.17o: 13-16), incompletely carried out later by Israel's 1st King Saul (I Sam.15). During the period of the Judges (12th-11th cents. BCE), Amalekites penetrated Western Eretz Yisrael at various points and their presence was a standing threat to the peace of the country.
In David's time, Amalek invaded Southern Judea, burning the town of Ziklag. David fought and defeated them heavily, only 400 escaping. (I Sam.30).
In the reign of Hezekiah (720-690 BCE) the tribe of Simeon overwhelmed the Amalekites and settled in their territory, whereas they had been living in Judea.
The name remained in rabbinic literature as a symbol of everlasting enmity to Israel, and Haman "the Agagite" (Est.3:1) is regarded as a descendant of Agag.
Saul Spares King Agag - 1 Samuel 15:11-9 -Illustrated Bible ...
Agag had been captured in battle by King Saul who spared his life. The prophet, Samuel, regarded this as a transgression of the Divine command to wipe out the Amalekites and hewed Agag into pieces (I Sam.15).
Right after Haman was elevated to his position of power as a Chief, everyone in the kingdom" would bow down and prostrate themselves before Haman." To enhance the homage paid to himself, Haman wore the image of a deity around his neck. This step lent a religious significance to the ceremonious bowing. Yet there was one person who bowed to no men and who acknowledged no deities.
This was Mordecai, "and Mordecai would not bow down or prostrate himself." Mordecai was known to be a Jew, so this gave Haman reason to rant against all the Jews, "And Haman sought to kill all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who were in the kingdom as Xerxes or Ahasueros or Achashverosh.
And when he sought to sell his plan for the "final solution"of the Jews in Persia to the king, Haman had only to point to their Jewishness: "Their laws are different from every other peoples." All other people were polytheistic, and Jews were monotheistic. Jews also refused to sacrifice people to their god.
Now the Jews realized that they were hated simply because they were Jewish. It was a revelation to them since so many had become Hellenized. They realized that their religion meant more to them than before. Where once they had been so casual about their Jewishness that they could enjoy a party celebrating their own physical and spiritual downfall, not events had brought about a fresh appreciation of Jewish life.
The same awareness should have also happened at the end of WWII and the Holocaust where 6 million Jews were slaughtered in the name of Hitler.
It's happening again with Israel being threatened by Hamas terrorists, Hezbollah terrorists of Lebanon, and the Houthis terrorists of Yemen, amounting to 7 fronts whereby the IDF is fighting.
Our story is one of a uniquely Jewish struggle to maintain a passionate sense of identity amidst a host culture that was at times welcoming and at time, threatening. When Jewish lives were threatened specifically because they were Jewish lives, the Jews of Persia realized that not only did they want to live, but more than anything else they wanted to live as Jews.
If you are not familiar with the Esther story, Esther tells her husband of Haman's plan which was already in play, killing many Jews, to kill all, and that she was Jewish. Ahasueros was so mad that the had Haman hung with all his 10 sons. We have remembered this history of ours with the holiday of Purim, a happy holiday of being saved from extermination. According to the Book of Esther, Haman had ten sons. However, Talmudic scholars disagree on the exact number of Haman's sons.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Around the Year with the National Jewish Outreach Program by Simon Apisdorf/intro. by Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald
https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/why-amalekites-special-enemies-israel.html
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