Haman's Babylonian Revolt

Haman’s Babylonian Revolt by Damien F. Mackey King Belshazzar had recognised a like-minded type in Jeconiah and had chosen to exalt him above all the others in the kingdom of Babylon (2 Kings 25:28-30). Haman would have attended Belshazzar’s Feast Haman was, according to my revision of the period, king Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) “the captive” (cf. I Chronicles 3:17): Book of Esther neither reveals Haman’s father nor his nationality https://www.academia.edu/45036661/Book_of_Esther_neither_reveals_Hamans_father_nor_his_nationality The prophet Jeremiah, who also called the young king, “Coniah” (22:28), had foretold a nasty ending for the king, and had declared that “no man of his seed shall prosper” (vv. 25-30). Jeconiah’s beginnings were as the son of the apostate king of Judah, Jehoiakim, the son of the pious Josiah. Originally named Eliakim, Jehoiakim had been set up on the throne of Judah by pharaoh Necho, who had taken Jehoiakim’s brother, Jehoahaz, off to Egypt, and had re-named Eliakim as Jehoiakim (2 Kings 23:31-35). Jehoiakim may have, in his debt to Egypt, given his son Jeconiah also an Egyptian name, Amon (= Aman/Haman). Jeconiah would later follow his father, Jehoiakim, into Babylonian captivity; but, whereas the father repented there, in Babylon, the son would go from bad to worse. I have identified Jehoiakim as the repentant king, Manasseh, and his son, Jeconiah, as king Amon: King Jehoiakim cancelled out from Matthew's Genealogy? https://www.academia.edu/44968420/King_Jehoiakim_cancelled_out_from_Matthews_Genealogy Manasseh-Jehoiakim may have written a penitential book in Babylon. Baruch 1:5-7: “Then they wept, and fasted, and prayed before the Lord; they collected as much money as each could give, and sent it to Jerusalem to the high priest Jehoiakim son of Hilkiah son of Shallum, and to the priests, and to all the people who were present with him in Jerusalem”. “Jehoiakim son of Hilkiah” here is, I believe, the priest Jeremiah himself: Jeremiah as Baruch 1:7’s ‘Jehoiakim son of Hilkiah’ https://www.academia.edu/search?q=mackey%20jeremiah%20in%20baruch%201&utf8=%E2%9C%93 Jeconiah, after enduring almost four decades of imprisonment in Babylon, during the long reign of the pro-Daniel king Nebuchednezzar, would, in the 37th year be released by Nebuchednezzar’s son-successor, Evil-merodach (2 Kings 2:27): “In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. He did this on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month”. Evil-merodach was the “King Belshazzar” of the Book of Daniel (ch. 5), the son of Nebuchednezzar (cf. Baruch 1:11, 12). Belshazzar and Jeconiah were idolatrous birds of a feather. King Belshazzar had recognised a like-minded type in Jeconiah and had chosen to exalt him above all the others in the kingdom of Babylon (2 Kings 25:28-30): “He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived”. Without doubt, Jeconiah would have been amongst the “nobles” invited to Belshazzar’s Feast (Daniel 5:1), when (v. 2) “the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them”. Jeconiah, though a Jew. Had become thoroughly Babylonian-ised by now, and had no desire to see the Temple of Jerusalem rebuilt after its destruction by King Nebuchednezzar. Jeconiah would this have witnessed the prophet Daniel’s intervention at Belshazzar’s Feast, prompted by the Queen (5:10-13). He would have heard the Jewish sage, upon reading the “Writing on the Wall”, pronounce the death-knell of the kingdom of Babylon. King Belshazzar had promised Daniel (v. 16): ‘If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.’ Third highest ruler? Yes, because Jeconiah was second highest after the king himself. And Jehoiachin would have witnessed the dramatic aftermath (vv. 30-31): “That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two”. Haman leads a Babylonian revolt against Persia The imperial aspirations of Jeconiah-Haman suffered a major setback when he, as second to King Belshazzar in the kingdom of Babylon, witnessed the sudden demise of this Belshazzar, and the emergence of Darius the Mede (Daniel 5:30-31). Medo-Persia had overtaken Babylon. To make matters worse, Jeconiah-Haman’s high position in the kingdom was now under threat. Darius the Mede so favoured the prophet Daniel, who had spectacularly announced the fall of the kingdom of Babylon, that the Great King even considered “appointing him to rule the whole kingdom” (Daniel 6:4). Daniel was one of those despised Yahwistic Jews that Jeconiah-Haman (although a Jew himself), had long loathed. Jeconiah-Haman must have been behind the conspiracy to get Daniel, who had physically destroyed the dragon-god, Bel, that the Babylonians – and even the Medo-Persian king himself, as Cyrus – greatly revered (“Bel and the Dragon”, Daniel 14). The very life of the Great King was now under threat also from the rabid Babylonians (14:28): “The Babylonians went further when they heard about this and began intriguing against the king. ‘The king has turned Jew’ …”. Daniel himself would end up in the den of lions. This is likely the point at which the Book of Daniel and the Book of Esther converge. For, early in the reign of King “Ahasuerus” (= Darius/Cyrus), some eunuchs had been plotting to assassinate the king (Esther, Introductory, vv. 1-6). Mordecai now, and no longer Daniel, emerges as the leading pious male figure. He became aware of the plot against “Ahasuerus”, and managed to foil it. For this he received no significant reward. And we specifically learn that Haman was furious about Mordecai’s interference (v. 6), “… he intended to injure Mordecai in revenge”, indicating that it was he, Haman, who had engineered the whole plot against the Great King. Haman must have been a charismatic individual, though – the Persians would come to know him as ‘Father’ (Esther 8:12), because “Ahasuerus” would soon promote him to second in the Medo-Persian kingdom. This is the second time that Haman was raised to second; first in Babylon, and now, in Susa. This promotion now presented Haman with the ideal opportunity to destroy Mordecai and his Yahwistic fellow Jews, and to replace the Great King with his very own self. Esther 4:8-10: They were covenanting with their idols, intending “to glorify a mortal king”. Haman would also have intended to stop the Temple re-building that “Ahasuerus” (Cyrus) had allowed in his first years (cf. Ezra 1:1-4). He would “transfer the Persian empire to the Babylonians - not “Macedonians, as it can read (Esther 8:12). Mordecai and Esther, for their part, knowing that the is conspiratorial lesser king had been foretold by the prophet Jeremiah as “childless”, knew that they had to bring about, not only Haman’s downfall, but that of his ten sons. Queen Esther would insist on this (9:3).