Vajezatha

Vajezatha was one of the ten sons of Haman the Agagite, the chief minister of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), who had devised a plan to destroy all the Jews in the Persian empire. When the plan was reversed by the intercession of Queen Esther and the king's favor toward Mordecai, Haman was executed and his sons fell with him. Vajezatha and his nine brothers were killed by the Jews of the capital Shushan on the thirteenth of Adar (Esther 9:9), and their bodies were publicly hung the following day at Esther's request, ensuring the complete destruction of the house of the enemy.

The name Vajezatha, meaning "purity" or "worthy of honor" (Hitchcock: "sprinkling the chamber"), is of Persian origin like the names of his brothers. Haman's ten sons are listed together in Esther 9:7–9, and the names were traditionally written in a vertical column in Hebrew scrolls of Esther, signifying their simultaneous downfall. The deaths of Haman's sons fulfilled the ancient judgment on Amalek that Saul had failed to complete, framing the book of Esther as the resolution of a conflict stretching back to 1 Samuel 15:8.