Once There Was a Wicked, Wicked Man
Oh once there was a wicked, wicked man
And Haman was his name sir,
He would have murdered all the Jews,
Though they were not to blame sir.
Oh today, we’ll merry, merry be
Oh today, we’ll merry, merry be
Oh today, we’ll merry, merry be
And nosh some hamantaschen.
Yes, the villain Haman is still remembered year after year as Jewish children sing this little song. The lyrics help them learn the story from the biblical book of Esther as they celebrate the feast of Purim. Wicked Haman, key advisor to King Ahasuerus, devised a plan to destroy all the Jews throughout the entire kingdom—127 provinces, from India to Ethiopia:
There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain….Let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work (Est. 3:8–9).
Haman’s demonic hatred of the Jewish people was focused and intense. It can be traced back to his people, the Agagites, archenemies of the Israelites (1 Sam. 15).
Fast forward 2,500 years to Iran, modern-day Persia. Like Haman, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is fixated on the “Zionists.” Like Haman, he said the Jews “must be wiped off the map.” At the World Without Zionism conference in Iran in 2005, he said, “They [ask]: ‘Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?’ But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved.”1 He added, “Imam [Khomeini] said: ‘This regime that is occupying Qods [Jerusalem] must be eliminated from the pages of history.’ This sentence is very wise.”2
Like Haman, Ahmadinejad possesses a demonic hatred for the Jewish people, which becomes clear when he denies the Holocaust. Whether speaking at the UN, Columbia University, or in the Muslim world, his desire is the same: the destruction of Israel.
The book of Esther records Haman’s demise. He was hung on the gallows he had built specifically for Mordecai the Jew. He died, while the Jews live on.
Ahmadinejad now looks to attain nuclear capability to obliterate Israel. Yet God promises in the Bible that no one will ever destroy the Jewish people (Jer. 31:35–36). Who knows? Maybe someday the Jewish people will sing a song of the wicked Ahmadinejad.
ENDNOTES
- “A World Without Zionism or America,” October 27, 2005 <zionismisrael.com/news/world_without_zionism.htm>.
- Ibid.
