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Just another option (aside from Dr. Katz) for you to consider as to the meaning of those verses 10 & 13. Verse 10 clearly shows that Haman's ten sons were killed but Esther made a special request for them & their father Haman, to be hanged (vv 14 & 25).
Sometimes, amongst the heathen, those criminals who were hanged, had their corpses left on the tree, sometimes for a short spell or until they were consumed. Esther may have resorted to a similar act, whereby the full impact of the wickedness of Haman & his sons (who would have been complicit to their father's crime), become an ongoing witness to all people, of their wickedness & God's deliverance of the Jews. So the Feast of Purim, became an everlasting memorial for the Jews.
The ancient practice was to hang your enemies in a public display, as was the case in 1Samuel 31, where Saul and his sons were displayed on the city walls. When John Milius wrote Apocalypse Now, his mad Colonel Kurtz character employed the same tactic in the Vietnam era to create fear in his enemies.
I found the explanation by SkipVought to be thoroughly entertaining and I will never forget it. However I might want to investigate it further, I doubt I will ever find the sages and commentators, no doubt the Kabbalistic sort, on line to see for myself the veracity of such a tale of divine justice. You will note that where Skip left Agag alive, a few verses later Samuel hacks him to death, 1 Samuel 31. The label of Haman as an "Agagite" is more of an ethnic connection to Agag, rather than a bloodline, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it if he was.:)
About 5 centuries earlier, in the days of King Saul, in 1 Samuel 15, the prophet, Samuel, instructed King Saul to attack Israel's mortal enemy, Amalek, and "smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." But King Saul did not obey the instruction from God, and allowed King Agag to live.
Esther, Hadassah, her Jewish name, is elevated to be the Queen of a Gentile nation, Persia and Media, and no one but her uncle knew her Jewish ethnicity. Her life crosses paths with a rabid Jew hater, Haman the Agagite. Is he a descendant of King Agag, the Amalekite?
In Esther, she asks The King "If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows." Est 9:13
As stated by Dr. Moshe Katz of the Hebrew University,
"The ten sons of Haman had already been killed, why bother to hang them? In the writings of the Sages and the commentators, we find several ideas that could clarify this: On the word 'tomorrow,' in Esther's request, the Sages comment: 'There is a tomorrow that is now, and a tomorrow which is later.' In other words, Esther was asking that the hanging of Haman's ten sons not remain an isolated episode in history, but should recur in the future, as well."
In effect, Esther was asking King Ahasuarus to hang the ten sons of Haman on the tomorrow that is now and the King of the Universe to hand the ten sons of Haman on the tomorrow which is later.
When ancient scribes wrote the names of Haman's sons, 3 Hebrew characters were smaller and 1 was larger. The number that these 4 character represent is 5707, as a Hebrew year, equates to 1946, the year of the Nuremberg executions, where 10 Germans, guilty of crimes against humanity were hanged. Was this the "tomorrow which is later?"
Sometimes, amongst the heathen, those criminals who were hanged, had their corpses left on the tree, sometimes for a short spell or until they were consumed. Esther may have resorted to a similar act, whereby the full impact of the wickedness of Haman & his sons (who would have been complicit to their father's crime), become an ongoing witness to all people, of their wickedness & God's deliverance of the Jews. So the Feast of Purim, became an everlasting memorial for the Jews.
The ancient practice was to hang your enemies in a public display, as was the case in 1Samuel 31, where Saul and his sons were displayed on the city walls. When John Milius wrote Apocalypse Now, his mad Colonel Kurtz character employed the same tactic in the Vietnam era to create fear in his enemies.
I found the explanation by SkipVought to be thoroughly entertaining and I will never forget it. However I might want to investigate it further, I doubt I will ever find the sages and commentators, no doubt the Kabbalistic sort, on line to see for myself the veracity of such a tale of divine justice. You will note that where Skip left Agag alive, a few verses later Samuel hacks him to death, 1 Samuel 31. The label of Haman as an "Agagite" is more of an ethnic connection to Agag, rather than a bloodline, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it if he was.:)
This is a fantastically interesting question.
About 5 centuries earlier, in the days of King Saul, in 1 Samuel 15, the prophet, Samuel, instructed King Saul to attack Israel's mortal enemy, Amalek, and "smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." But King Saul did not obey the instruction from God, and allowed King Agag to live.
Esther, Hadassah, her Jewish name, is elevated to be the Queen of a Gentile nation, Persia and Media, and no one but her uncle knew her Jewish ethnicity. Her life crosses paths with a rabid Jew hater, Haman the Agagite. Is he a descendant of King Agag, the Amalekite?
In Esther, she asks The King "If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows." Est 9:13
As stated by Dr. Moshe Katz of the Hebrew University,
"The ten sons of Haman had already been killed, why bother to hang them? In the writings of the Sages and the commentators, we find several ideas that could clarify this: On the word 'tomorrow,' in Esther's request, the Sages comment: 'There is a tomorrow that is now, and a tomorrow which is later.' In other words, Esther was asking that the hanging of Haman's ten sons not remain an isolated episode in history, but should recur in the future, as well."
In effect, Esther was asking King Ahasuarus to hang the ten sons of Haman on the tomorrow that is now and the King of the Universe to hand the ten sons of Haman on the tomorrow which is later.
When ancient scribes wrote the names of Haman's sons, 3 Hebrew characters were smaller and 1 was larger. The number that these 4 character represent is 5707, as a Hebrew year, equates to 1946, the year of the Nuremberg executions, where 10 Germans, guilty of crimes against humanity were hanged. Was this the "tomorrow which is later?"
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