HAMAN hā’ mən (הָמָ֧ן; ̔Αμάν; In Add Esth 12:6; 16:10, 17 [KJV, ASV] his name appears as AMAN).

Son of Hammedatha the Agagite; the prime minister of Persia under Xerxes. He became the bitter enemy of Mordecai, the uncle of Esther, because Mordecai could not as a Jew prostrate himself before him like the other subjects of the king. He therefore determined in revenge not only to kill Mordecai but to exterminate all the Jews in the Persian empire, and received from Xerxes a decree to do this. He prepared a gallows on which to hang Mordecai.

When Mordecai heard of this plot, he urged Esther, who was the queen of Xerxes, to intercede in behalf of her people. At a banquet to which she invited the king and Haman she told the king of Mordecai’s services to the king and had the king bestow upon Mordecai the right to royal honors. At a second banquet she told the king of Haman’s purpose to slaughter all the Jews. Xerxes ordered Haman to be hung on the gallows which Haman had prepared for Mordecai; and Haman’s ten sons were killed too. The Jewish Feast of Purim celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from Haman’s plot to kill them. The whole story is told in Esther 3-9.