Agagite (Hastings' Dictionary)

A term of reproach used to designate Haman, the enemy of the Jews at the Persian court of Abasuerus (Est S'-'" S"-' 9**). In Josephus' version of the story (Ant. XI. vi. 5), Haman is described as 'by birth an Amalekite.' In Est 3' instead of Agagite the LXX reads Bovyaiov, and in 9^ 4 lAaKiSihv, while in the other passages simply the name Haman occurs. Thus in the LXX the word Agagite does not occur. Some have argued (e.g. Bertheau in Comm.)

that the designation was used to indicate to a Hebrew what 'Macedonian ' would to a Greek, and that it meant Amalekite in the sense of a contemptible, hateful person, but not as implying that Haman had any genealogical connexion with Amalek. The pro- motion of a foreigner to such a position in the empire as Haman occupied, even under the rerime of the most despotic monarchs, must have been quite an exceptional occurrence.

Apart from anj other indication of Haman's foreign extraction, it is scarcely safe to base an assumption of such a kind on the possible meaning of a mere appellative. Others (e.g. v. Orelli in Herzog) think that the connexion of this adjective with the proper name Agag is extremely doubtful J. Macphkrson.