ESTHER'S PROPHECY OF THE "10 SONS OF HAMAN"
In the book of Esther, we find the story of Haman, a man who hated the Jews and tried to exterminate them. This hate arose because Mordecai, a Jew, would not pay homage or bow down to Haman, a high official in the Persian empire. But instead of taking vengeance on Mordecai alone, Haman instead sought to destroy all the Jews throughout the Persian kingdom.
To accomplish this, he persuaded King Ahasuerus of Persia to issue a decree to annihilate all Jews in the Persian provinces, both young and old, women and children. Esther, the wife of King Ahasuerus, was a Jew and the cousin of Mordecai, who had raised her. She told King Ahasuerus that Mordecai, who had earlier protected the king by reporting a plot against him, was her relative. She also told the king that Haman's wicked plan was against her people, and beseeched the king to allow the Jews to defend themselves. King Ahasuerus had Haman hanged on a gallows he had intended for Mordecai, and he permitted the Jews in every city to gather together and protect themselves against those who tried to assault them.
Now let's pick up the story in the 9th chapter of Esther:
ESTHER 9:1 Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, the time came for the king's command and his decree to be executed. On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them. 2 The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could withstand them, because fear of them fell upon all people. 3 And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all those doing the king's work, helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. 4 For Mordecai was great in the king's palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces; for this man Mordecai became increasingly prominent. 5 Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased with those who hated them. 6 And in Shushan the citadel the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7 Also Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha 10 the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews they killed; but they did not lay a hand on the plunder. (NKJV)
We see that in addition to the 500 men who attacked them in Shushan, the Jews killed the 10 sons of Haman. However, Esther had another request of the king after these 10 sons of Haman had already died:
ESTHER 9:11 On that day the number of those who were killed in Shushan the citadel was brought to the king. 12 And the king said to Queen Esther, "The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the citadel, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall be granted to you. Or what is your further request? It shall be done." 13 Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do again tomorrow according to today's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows." 14 So the king commanded this to be done; the decree was issued in Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons. (NKJV)
In memory of this great Jewish victory over their enemies, the Jews have celebrated the feast of Purim annually for over 2,000 years.
Esther's request to have the 10 sons of Haman hanged seems rather unusual, seeing that Haman's sons had already been killed. Dr. Moshe Katz addresses this request in his book, Computorah:
. . . 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. Yet, if this is the case, surely King Ahasverus was in no position to acceed to such a request. Only G-d could make and keep such a promise.
An examination of the sources solves this problem, too. According to the Sages, every time King Ahasverus is mentioned by name in the Book of Esther, the reference is to him; when the word [hey-mem-lamed-kaph] - the King, appears on its own, it refers to G-d.
Esther was therefore not addressing her request to Ahasverus, but to G-d - who granted her request:"And the King commanded it be done." (Esther 9:14).(Computorah, pp. 99-100)
If this request was for the future as well as for that time, has this prophecy of Esther been fulfilled? Does history record 10 additional "sons of Haman" who were hanged after trying to exterminate the Jewish people?
Yes, both history and the Bible codes verify the fufillment of this incredible prophecy!
In Esther 3:1, we are told that Haman is an Agagite. Agag was the king of Amalek (1 Sam. 15:8). Therefore, Haman and his sons were Amalekites. Rabbi Elijah Solomon, a prominent Lithuanian rabbi of the 18th century known as "the great one of Vilna," held the tradition that the German nation was descended from Amalek.
During World War II, the Nazis in Germany tried to wipe the Jewish race from the face of the earth. Six million Jews were killed by the Germans. After the end of the war, the surviving Nazi leaders were tried at Nuremberg for this and other war crimes. These trials began on November 20, 1945, for 22 German Nazi leaders.
On October 1, 1946, 12 of the German defendants were sentenced to death by hanging for their part in the atrocities committed against the Jews and others. One of those convicted was Martin Bormann, who was sentenced in absentia. A second was Hermann Goering, who committed suicide in his cell just hours before the executions by taking cyanide poison. The remaining 10 Germans were hanged to death on October 16, 1946.
Dr. Moshe Katz reveals some incredible information about this event:
. . . Since the trial was conducted by a military tribunal, the sentence handed down should have been death by firing squad, or by electric chair as practiced in the U.S.A. However, the court specifically prescribed hanging, exactly as in Esther's original request:". . . let Haman's ten sons be hanged."Though doubts may linger about the connection between the Book of Esther and the Nazi war criminals, the condemned Julius Streicher certainly had none.Through some insight, Streicher appears to have grasped this link to Purim, as revealed by his final shout, with the noose about his neck, mere seconds before he was hanged.
. . . With burning hatred in his eyes, Streicher looked down at the witnesses and shouted: "Purim Fest 1946!" (Computorah, pp. 104-106)
These hangings took place on October 16, 1946. On the Jewish calendar, October 16, 1946, corresponded to 21 Tishri, 5707. This date was the last day of the Jewish feast of Sukkot, the day called Hoshana Rabba. The Jews believe that this day represents the coming time when God's verdicts of judgment will be sealed.
In the very passage of Scripture where Esther's prophetic request is recorded, we can find the future execution date of these descendants of Haman, both in the surface text and encoded within it. First, let's look at how the date can be found in the surface text.
Jewish sages have long believed and taught that every variation of the surface text, whether it be the size of the letters themselves or a variant spelling of a word, has specific meaning. In some cases, that meaning remains a mystery. But in the case of Esther's prophecy regarding the hanging of Haman's 10 sons, history has finally unveiled what was plainly there to see for 2,300 years.
In Esther 9:7-9, we find a list of the 10 sons of Haman who were killed by the Jews. Below is the Hebrew text of these verses as it appears in the Tanakh. Remember, Hebrew reads from right to left.
As you can see, the names appear one above the other in the text. About this strange formatting, the Soncino Commentary states:
7-9. The Massorah prescribes that the names of the ten sons of Haman be written in a perpendicular column on the right-hand side of the page, with the vav, i.e., and, on the left-hand side. This is probably derived from the tradition that the ten sons were hanged on a tall gallows, one above the other. . . . (The Five Megilloth, p. 179)
However, there may be another reason why these names are listed one above the other. As you can see by looking at the list of names, four letters (the tav in the first name, the shin and tav in the seventh name, and the zayin in the tenth name) appear smaller than the other letters.
Starting at the top of the passage, I've highlighted three of these four small letters in red. In the Hebrew language, letters can also represent numbers. Tav has a numerical value of 400, shin a numerical value of 300, and zayin a numerical value of 7. The tav, shin, and zayin, totaled from top to bottom, represent the number 707.
Using the Jewish method of recording years, the number 707 can represent the year 5707 on the Jewish calendar. Webster's NewWorld Hebrew Dictionary states: "In practice . . . the thousands are skipped and the Jewish year is referred to by quoting, in Jewish numerical symbols, the figure from the hundreds down" (p. xxiv, Introduction, The Jewish Calender).
As shown above, 5707 on the Jewish calendar was the year that the 10 Nazi war criminals were hanged for their crime of attempting to eradicate the Jewish people. For centuries Jews who read the book of Esther had the future date for the fulfillment of her prophecy there in plain sight, but it could not be deciphered until the event actually occurred!
The meaning of the fourth small letter, the tav in the seventh name, is still unknown. Perhaps it could signify "the end" of the sons of Haman, since tav is the final letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
In the past several years, historical information has been discovered encoded within the Hebrew text of the Old Testament using a method called equidistant letter sequencing (ELS). For those of you who aren't familiar with this procedure, a good introductory article by Dr. Jeffrey B. Satinover explaining the Bible codes (Divine Authorship?) appeared in the October 1995 issue of Bible Review.
Using the Bible codes ELS methodology to discover hidden codes in the 9th chapter of Esther, we can find another astonishing discovery. The day and month of the execution of the German "sons of Haman" is encoded and hidden within the text, as shown below!
21 TISHRI
(white letters on red background)
The Jewish date "21 Tishri" (kaph-aleph-tav-shin-resh-yod) is encoded at an ELS of 216, beginning in Esther 9:12 and ending in Esther 9:27. This is the date upon which the 10 Nazi war criminals were hanged. Statistically, the odds of this date occurring in this passage by random chance are less than one in 1 million!
5707
(blue letters on light blue)
Running diagonally through "21 Tishri" is the Jewish year "5707" (tav-shin-zayin), which corresponds to 1946. This year is found at an ELS of 442, beginning in Esther 9:15 and ending in Esther 9:27. It shares the shin with "Tishri."
NAZI
(white letters on black)
Beginning underneath "hanged," the Hebrew transliteration of Nazi (nun-aleph-tsadi-yod) occurs. This word is found at an ELS of -650, beginning in Esther 9:19 and ending in Esther 8:9.
HANGED
(yellow letters on dark green)
On the top left part of the matrix, running vertically, the Hebrew word "hanged" (tav-lamed-vav-yod) appears at an ELS of 432. It begins in Esther 8:6 and ends in Esther 9:3.
AMALEKITE
(yellow letters on black)
Crossing the bottom of "21 Tishri" is the Hebrew word for "Amalekite" (ayin-mem-lamed-koph-yod). This word is found at an ELS of -7, beginning in Esther 9:27 and ending in Esther 9:26. According to Jewish tradition, the nation of Germany is thought to have descended from the biblical Amalekites (Exo. 17:8).
ARYAN
purple letters on yellow)
Right above the top of "21 Tishri" is the Hebrew word "Aryan" (aleph-resh-yod). It appears at an ELS of 1 in Esther 9:8. Hitler's objective in eradicating the Jews was to have a pure Aryan race.
HAMAN
(white letters on blue)
At the top of the matrix, at an ELS of 1, the name "Haman" (hey-mem-nun) appears in Esther 8:3.
TEN
black letters on light blue)
Underneath "Haman," the Hebrew word "ten" (ayin-shin-resh-hey) appears at an ELS of 1 in Esther 8:12.
SONS
(white letters on maroon)
Underneath "ten," at an ELS of 20, the Hebrew word "sons" (beth-nun-yod) appears. It begins in Esther 8:15 and ends in Esther 8:16.
The information in the surface text, as well as that encoded underneath the apparent text, is incredible! Only God, in His infinite power, could have inspired these things to be recorded in the book of Esther and then cause them to come to pass more than 2 millennia later. Yet He tells us that He can do this in His word.
ISAIAH 46:9 . . . For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure" (NKJV)
The Eternal God is certainly awesome! Baruch Hashem!
Bryan T. Huie
July 10, 2000
