In the story of Esther, Haman is referred to as "the Agagite", thereby creating a link between the enemy of Persian Jews and the ancient enemies of Israel, the Amalekites.
Concordance
Est 3:1, 10; 8:3, 5; 9:24
Agagite
| Bible Guide: Agagite |
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Agagite |
Agagite (ā'gəgīt), in the Bible, a not necessarily ethnical term used of Haman because of his hatred of the Jews.
| Wikipedia: Agagite |
The term Agagite is used in the Book of Esther as a description of Haman. The term is understood to be an ethnonym although nothing is known with certainty about the people designated by the name. As the events of the Book of Esther occur in Persia, it is considered likely that the term refers to people from the Persian town of Agag.
A well known Midrashic explanation of the term relates it to King Agag of the Amalekites whereby it is viewed as meaning either a literal descendant of Agag or an antisemite, the Amalekites having come to be symbolic of the antithesis of Judaism. The Agagites were the people of Haman who tried to kill the Jews.
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 | Hammedatha |
| Haman |
| There is a custom that every time Haman's name is mentioned in the reading of the megillah, all the children (and many adults) set up a clamor. What is the origin of this custom? |
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 | Where in the bible other than The Book of Esther are the Agagites after Samuel killed Agag king of the Amalekites? |
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Copyrights:
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 | Bible Guide. Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible. Copyright © 1986 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Agagite". Read more |
