Esther 9 · a question people ask
Hadn't Haman's ten sons already been killed? Why hang them?
The chapter tells both. In the citadel of Susa "They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy" (9:7-10), and the king tells Esther what was done in Susa, "including the ten sons of Haman" (9:12). Then Esther asks, "let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows" (9:13), and "The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in Susa; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons" (9:14). The chapter doesn't say why she asked it, and these notes don't guess. Later the chapter sums up what the king had commanded by letters: "that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows" (9:25). Haman himself had been hanged "on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai" (Esther 7:10).
The verses
“but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plan, which he had planned against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.”
“So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.”