Esther 3:7

1. The casting of lots 3:7

Haman cast the lot-pur is the Persian word for "lot"-to determine the day most favorable to wipe out the Jews. In the pagan ancient Near East, it was unthinkable to make plans of this magnitude without astrological guidance. The lot supposedly revealed the day most propitious for this act. [Note: The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Magic and Sorcery," by Kenneth A. Kitchen.] The official casting of lots happened during the first month of each year to determine the most opportune days for important events. [Note: W. W. Hallo, "The First Purim," Biblical Archaeologist 46:1 (1983):19-27.] This may explain why Haman cast lots in the first month and chose a date so much later to annihilate the Jews. However, God controlled the lot-casting (Proverbs 16:33) and gave the Jews almost a year to prepare for conflict with their enemies. Archaeologists have found quadrangular prism type dice at Susa, and perhaps it was this kind of device that Haman used to make his decision on this occasion. [Note: Wood, p. 409.]

"Though determined by lot, the day chosen seems maliciously ironical. The number 13 was considered unlucky by the Persians and the Babylonians, while the thirteenth day of the first month, the day on which the edict decreeing the Jews’ destruction was dispatched (Esther 3:12), is the day preceding Passover, the commemoration of the deliverance from slavery in Egypt." [Note: Bush, p. 386.]