Esther 9:24
Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
Haman is identified as the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, a descendant of Agag the Amalekite who served as counselor to the Persian king Xerxes, who reigned from 480 B.C. to 465 B.C. Acting from inherited Amalekite hatred of the Jews, he used his influence over the king to obtain a royal decree to kill God's people in one day. The Amalekites were still strong and scattered throughout the Persian kingdom in Esther's day because Saul had not obeyed the command to utterly destroy them, and the Lord had sworn war with Amalek from generation to generation.
The verse records that Haman cast Pur, that is, the lot, meaning the casting of lots to fix and choose the destruction of the Jews, including when and how they would be consumed and destroyed. The Hebrew word rendered Pur, that is, the lot, is goh-rah-l, meaning that by which a person's fate or portion is determined, by which an event is committed to chance, that is, to the determination of Providence rather than mere chance, as in casting or drawing lots. In the verse, lot does not mean region, country, or lot of inheritance; it is a different Hebrew word from the term for an inherited portion.
Haman's devising against the Jews to destroy them was an attempt by the enemy of all the Jews, acting as the devil's agent, to destroy all God's people and to overthrow God's eternal purpose by cutting off the godly line and the people through whom the promised Man-child would come. Heaven intervened against the plot: by God's providence and by a counter-decree, the Jews were saved from the threatened destruction, their enemies were overthrown in utter and absolute defeat, the godly line was preserved, and God's people were triumphantly vindicated. The verse gives the origin of the name and feast of Purim from the word Pur meaning lot, commemorating the Jews' deliverance and escape from the threat it describes. The account is an example of persecution over worship and of God's deliverance of His people, connected with the future effort to kill those who refuse to obey human commands about the Sabbath.