Haman’s execution

Haman’s execution turns the gallows prepared for Mordecai into the means of Haman’s own death. The reversal fulfills the threat hanging over Mordecai and makes Haman’s attempt to destroy his enemy the instrument of his downfall.

Background and Intended Victim

Haman’s death follows a plan to have Mordecai hanged. After Haman’s wife and friends urged him to have a gallows made fifty cubits high, he intended to ask the king the next day for Mordecai’s life. The book’s commentary stresses how close the danger had become: had Mordecai’s long-delayed reward been delayed even one day longer, his enemies’ plan might have proceeded.

The execution also completes a reversal foreshadowed in the commentary. Haman, who had risen to the height of worldly honor, was to see the honors he imagined for himself bestowed on Mordecai; he would be made to serve the man he intended to destroy, then fall by the gallows he had prepared for him.

The Execution

A chamberlain mentions the gallows Haman had prepared in his house for Mordecai. The commentary supposes that the chamberlain may have seen it when he went to summon Haman to the feast. On hearing of the gallows and its intended victim, Ahasuerus orders Haman to be hanged there. The account gives the king’s decision in a terse command, making the reversal immediate: the instrument meant for Mordecai becomes Haman’s own.

Reversal and Significance

The commentary identifies Haman’s death as retributive justice and as part of the providential reversal of his plot. Haman’s power and apparent ascent do not protect him; the plan he devised against Mordecai instead brings about his own ruin. In this reading, the episode is not merely a change in the fortunes of two men: it demonstrates how the intended destruction of God’s people is turned against their enemy.