Zeresh wife of Haman

 

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

 

“The Rabbis apply to Haman, who heeded his wife’s counsel, the verse (Prov. 10:1):
“a dull son is his mother’s sorrow.” Because he heeded her advice, he himself

was hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai”.

 

Tamar Kadari

 

 

 

 

Haman, or Aman, was, as we have discovered (with assistance from Jewish legend), a former king of Judah, namely, Amon, who was, as further concluded, the exiled king Jehoiachin (Jeconiah or Coniah). Now, this king had “wives” (2 Kings 24:15): “And [Nebuchednezzar] carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon”.

As Haman, he also had “ten sons” (Esther 9:10) – by one or more of his wives.

The however many “wives” of the king who went into captivity with him may, or may not, have perished by the time that (about four decades later) the king of Judah had been freed from prison by the son of Nebuchednezzar (Jeremiah 52:31): “In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison”.

A handful of years later again (in the Medo-Persian era) he re-enters the scene as the conspiratorial Haman, having then only the one wife of whom we are told, Zeresh.

 

Emil G. Hirsch et al. tell of a tradition according to which Jehoiachin was allowed to have his wife with him in prison. The suggestion here that it was a “Queen Semiramis”, wife of Nebuchednezzar, who enabled for this to happen would be, though, an anachronism.

And entirely inaccurate, too, would be Jehoiachin’s ‘repentance’ in light of his being Haman: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8560-jehoiachin

 

JEHOIACHIN.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Bernhard Pick, Solomon Schechter, Louis Ginzberg

 

…. Jehoiachin's sad experiences changed his nature entirely, and as he repented of the sins which he had committed as king he was pardoned by God, who revoked the decree to the effect that none of his descendants should ever become king (Jer. xxii. 30; Pesiḳ., ed. Buber, xxv. 163a, b); he even became the ancestor of the Messiah (Tan., Toledot, 20 [ed. Buber, i. 140]). It was especially his firmness in fulfilling the Law that restored him to God's favor. He was kept by Nebuchadnezzar in solitary confinement, and as he was therefore separated from his wife, the Sanhedrin, which had been expelled with him to Babylon, feared that at the death of this queen the house of David would become extinct.

They managed to gain the favor of Queen Semiramis, who induced Nebuchadnezzar to ameliorate the lot of the captive king by permitting his wife to share his prison. As he then manifested great self-control and obedience to the Law, God forgave him his sins (Lev. R. xix., end). Jehoiachin lived to see the death of his conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar, which brought him liberty; for within two days of his father's death Evil-merodach opened the prison in which Jehoiachin had languished for so many years.

[End of quote]

 

Tamar Kadari provides further midrashic insight into the situation, telling that Haman’s wife, Zeresh, was even more wicked than her husband. Included also in this colourful account is the tragic death of a daughter of the couple, which incident does not feature (at least explicitly) in the Esther narrative: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/zeresh-midrash-and-aggadah

 

Zeresh: Midrash and Aggadah

by Tamar Kadari

 

The midrash portrays Zeresh as being even more wicked than her husband Haman (Midrash le-Esther, Ozar ha-Midrashim [ed. Eisenstein], p. 51). Wise women are celebrated in Proverbs (14:1): “The wisest of women builds her house,” while the end of this verse says of the wicked Zeresh: “but folly tears it down with its own hand” (Midrash Proverbs 14:1).

 

The Book of Esther relates that Haman, incensed after he saw that Mordecai did not prostrate himself before him, returned home to consult with his friends and his wife Zeresh. The midrash elaborates that Haman’s friends were his wife’s lovers and that Haman also had mistresses, for all idolaters are licentious (Midrash Panim Aherim [ed. Buber], version B, chapter 5).

 

In another midrashic account, Haman had 365 advisors, like the days of the year, but none could give him advice as good as that of his wife Zeresh. She told him: “If this man of whom you speak is of Jewish stock, you will not overcome him, but you must act wisely against him. If you were to drop him into a fiery furnace, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were already dropped down there and they were saved. If you were to throw him into a lions’ den, Daniel was already thrown into a lions’ den and he emerged unscathed. If you were to put him in prison, Joseph was already incarcerated there and he left it. If you were to send him to the wilderness, Israel already were in the wilderness, they were fruitful and multiplied, they withstood all the tests, and they were saved.

If you were to blind him, Samson killed many Philistines when he was blind. But hang him on the gallows, for we have not found a single one of the Jews who was saved from hanging.”

 

Immediately (Esth. 5:14) “the proposal pleased Haman, and he had the gallows put up” (Esth. Rabbah 9:2; Midrash Abba Gurion [ed. Buber], chapter 5).

 

The Rabbis apply to Haman, who heeded his wife’s counsel, the verse (Prov. 10:1): “a dull son is his mother’s sorrow.” Because he heeded her advice, he himself was hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The Rabbis ask why Haman was not successful in using his riches to save himself from the scaffold. They reply that the case of Haman teaches us that all of a wicked man’s riches will be of no avail when his downfall is at hand (Midrash Proverbs 10:1).

 

Haman’s downfall began when Ahasuerus ordered him to parade Mordecai on horseback through the streets of the city. According to the midrash, when Haman did so, their route led through a lane that went past Haman’s house. Haman’s daughter looked down from the roof and thought that the rider on horseback was her father and that Mordecai was leading him. She took a full chamber pot and emptied it on his head. Haman looked up; his daughter saw that this was her father, and in her great amazement and distress she fell from the roof to her death. Therefore it is said (Esth. 6:12): “Haman hurried home, his head covered in mourning”—he was “in mourning” over his daughter’s death and “his head was covered” with filth (BT Megillah 16a). This midrashic account accentuates Haman’s great shame in the eyes of his household and those of the entire kingdom. The daughter’s act symbolized what would befall her father. Haman sought to maltreat Mordecai, but in the end he harmed himself. The daughter’s fall from the roof was therefore a portent of her father’s imminent ruin.

 

Afterwards, Haman returned home to once again take counsel with Zeresh and his confidants. According to the midrash, they told him: If Mordecai is from one of the tribes of Israel, you will prevail over him, but if he is from the tribe of Judah, or of Benjamin, Ephraim or Manasseh, you will not overcome him. For it is written of Judah (Gen. 49:8): “Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes”; and it is said of Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh (Ps. 80:3): “at the head of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh! Rouse Your might and come to our help!” These tribes received a special blessing that they would triumph over their enemies; Mordecai is a Benjaminite, and therefore you cannot harm him. They also told him: The people of Israel are compared to the dust and the stars. When they descend, they descend to the dust; and when they rise, they rise to the stars. So now that Mordecai is in the ascent, you will no longer be able to harm him (BT Megillah 16a).

 

The Rabbis prescribe that on Purim everyone must say: “Cursed be Haman, cursed be his sons, cursed be Zeresh his wife,” thereby fulfilling Prov. 10:7: “But the name of the wicked rots” (Esth. Rabbah 10:9).