Lives of Scripture

Hathach was one of the king's eunuchs assigned to attend Esther in the Persian court at Susa (Esther 4:5). When Esther heard that Mordecai was in the city gate dressed in sackcloth and ashes, she sent Hathach to find out why. Mordecai told him everything: Haman's plot and the money pledged for the destruction of the Jews, and gave Hathach a copy of the written decree to show Esther, along with an urgent charge -- that she go before the king and plead for her people (4:6-8). Hathach carried Mordecai's words back to Esther (4:9), and when she objected that approaching the king unsummoned could mean death, Hathach carried her answer back to Mordecai (4:10-12), setting up Mordecai's famous reply that she may have come to royal position "for such a time as this" (4:14). Hathach never speaks in his own voice and never acts on his own initiative -- his entire role is faithful, repeated movement between two people who cannot speak directly to each other at the moment it matters most. Without his reliability as a messenger, the exchange that steels Esther's resolve to risk her life for her people could not have happened. Scripture records nothing else about him afterward.