Esther 3

Esther 3
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An intricately illustrated early 18th-century manuscript scroll of the Book of Esther.
Book	Book of Esther
Category	Ketuvim
Christian Bible part	Old Testament
Order in the Christian part	17

Esther 3 is the third chapter of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.^[1] 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.^[2] Chapters 3 to 8 contain the nine scenes that form the complication in the book.^[3] 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 (Esther 2:5–6).^[4] The king Ahasuerus 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 (3:2), which is connected to Mordecai's Jewish identity (as Jews would only bow down to worship their own God (cf. Daniel 3); this indirectly introduced the religious dimension of the story.^[4] Haman reacted by a vast plan to destroy not simply Mordecai, but his entire people (3:8), getting the approval from the king to arrange for a particular date of genocide, selected by casting a lot, or pur (one reason for the festival of Purim; Esther 9:24–26) to fall on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar (3:7, 13).^[4] The chapter ends with the confused reaction of the whole city of Susa due to the decree (verse 15).^[4]