3:6 records that Haman decided to attempt to kill all the Jewish people because Mordechai would not bow down to him. This decision is illogical since Haman should just have wanted to kill Mordechai, as in fact Zeresh later suggests, 5:14. Yet, it could be that Haman always wanted to kill the Jewish people, and then Haman's anger at Mordechai's stubbornness not to bow down to him was just the final straw that stirred Haman to act.
Haman planned to kill the Jews on the 13th of Adar, 3:13. Why did Haman only plan to attack the Jews on one day? The Malbim (on 9:21) suggests that the permission was not limited to one day as really the 13th of Adar was to be the start of the campaign against the Jews and it was open-ended. Yet, if this was true then the Jews should have been worried about their lives after the 13th of Adar (or after the 14th of Adar in Shushan) since Haman's decree was never rescinded. Also, if the decree was open-ended, why did Haman wait for the 13th of Adar, he should have begun immediately after he had permission from Achashverosh?
Another problem with an open-ended decree is that the country would have descended into anarchy. If the decree was just limited to one day, then there would be anarchy for only one day, but afterwards the country would resume again as a normal country. Thus, the most Haman was able to get from Achashverosh was one day of mayhem. This concern for order in the realm is also evident when Vashti disobeyed Achashverosh, and Achashverosh was advised to banish/ kill her because otherwise all the women would not listen to their husbands, 1:17.
Once Haman was only able to get permission to kill the Jews on one day, did he really think that all the Jews could be killed on one day? The Crusaders, Chmielnicki and Nazis did their best to kill the Jewish people but still they were unable to kill everybody in one day. I doubt that Haman really thought he could kill all the Jews on one day. What was to be with the Jews who survived by hiding on the 13th? Could they have continued living afterwards as if nothing happened?
My guess is that Haman's real goal was to reduce the Jewish people's wealth and hence influence in the country. This could occur due to the deaths of the people, but because the decree was limited to one day, most of the people would survive by hiding. Thus, there was a second aspect to the decree that the general population was allowed to plunder the Jewish people's homes (end of 3:13). While this aspect seems to be secondary it really was the crucial aspect of his plan. Even if the people hid on the 13th, they would be impoverished when they returned from hiding, and this impoverishment would reduce their influence in the country.
This goal of impoverishing the Jews is evident when Haman offered Achashverosh 10,000 silver talents, 3:9. This was a colossal sum of money. (Goldman, 1946, p.212, quotes from Herodotus that this was approximately the income of the entire Persian empire for a year.) How would Haman have been able to get such a large sum of money? It seems that this money was to come from the Jews who would be plundered, see Amos Chacham, 1990 on 3:9 and Hazony, 2000, p.229.
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