(See ESTHER.) Son of Hammedatha "the Agagite," probably of Amalekite origin (Numbers 24:7; Numbers 24:20; 1 Samuel 15:8). The Amalekites had from the first pursued Israel with unrelenting spite (Exodus 17:16, margin; Deuteronomy 25:17-19), and were consequently all but exterminated by Israel (1 Samuel 15:8; 1 Samuel 30:17; 2 Samuel 8:12; 1 Chronicles 4:43). A survivor of such a race would instinctively hate Israel and every Jew. Elevated by one of those sudden turns which are frequent in despotic states where all depends on the whim of the autocrat, he showed that jealousy of any omission of respect which is characteristic of upstarts.
        These two motives account for his monstrous scheme of revenge whereby he intended to exterminate a whole nation for the affront of omission of respect on the part of the one individual, Mordecai. God's retributive judgment and overruling providence are remarkably illustrated; his wicked plot backfired on himself; the honours which he designed for himself he, in spite of himself, heaped on the man whom he so scornfully hated; and the gallows on which he meant to hang Mordecai was that on which he was hanged himself (Psalm 7:15-16).