1 After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.
Nothing else is symbolized by the arrogant Haman than the opulence of the powerful of this world who take advantage of the benefits conceded to them by divine mercy. They despise allowing their neighbors, who are given to them as companions by nature, to have as sharers of such grace. Therefore they are guilty of striving to transfer to themselves the honor and reverence that are rightly due to God alone. And so they pursue with hatred all those who do not want to act according to such behavior or comply with it. They persecute them with afflictions and endeavor to put them to death. But the heavenly judge, “who regards the lowly, and perceives the haughty from far away, who knows the deceiver and he, who is deceived, makes the pain return upon the heads of the sinful, and their iniquity descends on their head. The sinful are caught in their own traps: the righteous will be freed from their anguish, the impious will be handed over in their stead.”
Now, what could the arrogant Haman symbolize if not the haughtiness of the powerful of this world, who exploit the benefactions conferred on them in the name of godly piety even as they disdain to treat their neighbors—who share their lot in nature—as partners in their good fortune? That is why they wickedly attempt to direct toward themselves the honor and reverence which should properly be paid to God alone; and they persecute with hatred, pursue with torments, and even try to have killed anyone who refuses to do or agree to this. But the supreme judge, “who looks down upon the humble but recognizes the haughty from far away; who knows the deceiver and he who is deceived, turns the grief caused by the wicked back upon their heads, and their wickedness comes down on the tops of their heads. The unjust are caught in their own traps; the just man is freed from his constraints; and the wicked man is put in his place” (Psalms 138 and 7). It may also be that this Haman the Agagite, who according to Josephus was descended from the line of Amalek, prefigures the bloody people of the Jews who killed their prophets and were not afraid to kill even the Lord of the prophets and his apostles. It was when they lost the nobility of their race because of their disbelief and hardness of heart that Isaiah called them the princes of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah; and Ezekiel tells them: “Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite” (Ezekiel 16). Hence these proclaimers of Christ regard them as enemies of the law of God. So they rush to lay their hands not only on Mordecai, that is, on the preachers of the Gospel, but also on the entire catholic people, and to wipe them out from this life; and yet the death they were scheming to inflict upon the innocent in this world they are forced to endure endlessly within their souls because their own actions demand it, and a just judge is paying them back.
[AD 856] Rabanus Maurus on Esther 3:1-6