After these things
After the marriage of Esther, and the discovery of the conspiracy to take away the king's life, five years after, as Aben Ezra observe, at least more than four years, for so it appears from ( Esther 3:7 )
did King Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite;
whom both the Targums make to descend from Amalek, and to be of the stock or family of Agag, the common name of the kings of Amalek; and so Josephus F7; but this is not clear and certain; in the apocryphal Esther he is said to be a Macedonian; and Sulpitius the historian says
and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with
him;
erected a throne for him, higher than the rest, either of his own princes and nobles, or such as were his captives, see ( 2 Kings 25:28 ) . It was the custom of the kings of Persia, which it is probable was derived from Cyrus, to advance those to the highest seats they thought best deserved it: says he to his nobles, let there be seats with you as with me, and let the best be honoured before others;--and again, let all the best of those present be honoured with seats above others F9.
F7 Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6.) sect. 5.
F8 Hist. Sacr. l. 2. p. 78.
F9 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 41.