“Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, ‘If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is from the seed of the Jews, you will not overcome him, but will surely fall before him.’ While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived” (Esth 6:13–14a).
Never in my lifetime has the book of Esther seemed more relevant. We live in a time when hatred for the Jews and the nation of Israel is increasingly celebrated on university campuses, in some churches, and across the internet. Yet the words of Haman’s wise men and Zeresh his wife remain just as inspired today as they were then.
To grasp the theological depth of Zeresh’s words requires a book, but we can briefly consider them in their canonical setting. Esther’s conflict between Haman and the Jewish people is not isolated but rooted in the Torah, especially in the promise that Rebekah’s seed would possess the gates of those who hate him (Gen 24:60b; see 22:17b). That promise frames the struggle between Jacob and Esau (Gen 25:21–26) and Jacob’s inheritance of the blessing (Gen 27:29).
Within this theological framework, the war between Amalek, Esau’s seed (Gen 36:12), and the seed of Jacob (Exod 17:8–16) comes into view. Balaam later foretold that a specific seed from Israel would arise in the last days (Num 24:14) to defeat Agag (24:7), Edom (24:17–19), and Amalek (24:20).
Though Jew hatred repeatedly raises its serpent-like head, Amalek’s spiritual seed will not prevail but will surely fall before the Jewish King.
In Zeresh’s words to Haman, a descendant of Amalek, we hear an echo of Balaam’s declaration to Balak: “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced? … God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; when He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it” (Num 23:8, 19–20).
God’s gifts and calling of the seed of Jacob, that is, the Jewish people, are irrevocable (Rom 11:28–29), and great blessings are promised to the nations through them (Rom 11:12–13). Those who seek to harm the Jewish people in word and deed would do well to heed Zeresh’s warning before it is too late. Though Jew hatred repeatedly raises its serpent-like head, Amalek’s spiritual seed will not prevail but will surely fall before the Jewish King.
““I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; a star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel, and shall crush through the forehead of Moab, and tear down all the sons of Sheth. Edom shall be a possession, Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession, while Israel performs valiantly. One from Jacob shall have dominion, and will destroy the remnant from the city. And he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said, Amalek was the first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction’” (Num 24:17–20).
