Mordecai

Mordecai, son of Jair of the tribe of Benjamin and a descendant of the exiles carried to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, was the Jewish guardian and cousin of Esther who became the deliverer of the Jewish people in Persia. Residing in Susa, the Persian capital, he had adopted his orphaned cousin Hadassah (Esther) as his own daughter. When Esther was chosen queen by Ahasuerus (Xerxes), Mordecai maintained a daily watch at the palace gate (Esther 2:11). His discovery and reporting of a plot against the king's life (Esther 2:21–23) went unrewarded at the time but proved decisive later. His refusal to bow to Haman the Agagite — motivated by loyalty to his Jewish identity — provoked Haman's genocidal decree against all the Jews in the empire (Esther 3:2–6). Mordecai's urgent appeal to Esther produced her courageous intercession, which reversed Haman's edict. Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, who was elevated to prime minister and became great among the Jews and an advocate of his people's welfare (Esther 10:3).