This idiom was first used in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, but there is an incident in the Bible that’s a perfect example of someone being hoisted by his own petard. What does this idiom mean?
In Act 3, Scene 4 of Hamlet, Hamlet is having a talk with his mother. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of his classmates, have been ordered to take him to England and do away with him, but Hamlet has a plan to outwit them.
From Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4
There’s letters sealed; and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work,
For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petard; and ’t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon. O, ’tis most sweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
Did Hamlet succeed in what he had planned? I have read Hamlet, so I should know, but I read it a very long time ago when I was in school. Do I remember what happened? No. But that is the first time this idiom was used in literature.
To me, the meaning of this idiom, although the idiom is never once said, is perfectly illustrated in the book of Esther. What is Esther’s story?
Her story begins when King Xerxes of Persia held a great banquet. The king became drunk and called for his wife, Queen Vashti, to come and show off her great beauty. The queen was not pleased with his order and refused. The king, angry at her disrespect and not wanting the women throughout his kingdom to follow her example, divorced and then banished Queen Vashti. Now without a wife, he soon began to regret his actions.
His advisors soon came up with a plan that pleased him. Young women from all over his kingdom were brought to a palace complex and seriously pampered for twelve months. From these women, King Xerxes would choose one to take Vashti’s place. Esther was among them, and the king was totally smitten by her. She was chosen to replace Vashti.
Now Esther’s uncle was Mordecai. He had instructed Esther to let no one know that she was a Jew. Why? Maybe the Jews were looked down upon? Maybe no one knowing Esther was a Jew bettered her chances at being chosen?
One night while Modecai was sitting by the King’s Gate, he overheard two of the guards plotting to kill the king. Mordecai informed Esther of what he had heard. She, in turn, informed the king and credited Mordecai with giving her the information. Those guards were then hanged, and the incident, along with the identity of the informant, Mordecai, was written down in the king’s record book.
Now Haman was the highest-ranking official in King Xerxes government and the archenemy of the Jews. Everyone had to bow down to him, but Mordecai, because he was a Jew, refused to do so. This angered Haman and he was determined to have revenge not only against Mordecai but against all the Jews. So he went to the king and told him that there was an odd set of people scattered throughout his kingdom whose ways were different from everyone else’s. These people even disregarded the king’s laws. Haman thought these strange people were a danger and offered to pay for the destruction of them himself.
Xerxes apparently didn’t ask many questions about this serious accusation. He simply gave Haman his signet ring and allowed him to deal with these people as he saw fit. So Haman wrote a decree, sealing it with the king’s signet ring, that called for all of the Jews—men, women, children, babies—to be destroyed on a certain day of the month and for their goods to be plundered.
When Mordecai heard what this decree said, he put on sackcloth and sat outside the King’s Gate, for no one dressed in sackcloth was allowed inside. Esther sent clothes down to him, but he refused to change. Finally, she sent of her royal eunuchs down to him to find out why he was mourning, and Mordecai told the royal eunuch everything.
The Bible doesn’t say so, but I’m sure the things the eunuch told Esther too her by surprise. She realized that she needed to approach the king about this, but as she told Mordecai, if anyone approached the king without being invited, they would be put to death unless the king extended his golden scepter to them. What a decision she had to make.
Mordecai sent a message back to her: “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive. If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.” (The Message, Esther 4:12-14)
Esther made the right decision. But first she instructed Mordecai to gather all the Jews and instruct them to fast, not eat or drink, for three days for her, and she and her maids would do the same. Then she would go to the king. “If I die, I die.” Did Esther sleep peacefully those three nights? I don’t know. Somehow, I think that what she needed to do was weighing heavily on her mind. Maybe she used this time to plan and scheme about how she would approach this problem facing her people. I also believe she did a lot of praying. During those three days, the plan she came up with was brilliant.
Three days later, Esther approached king, and he extended his golden scepter to her, sparing her life. When asked what she wanted, she replied that she wanted the king and Haman to come to a banquet she had prepared for them.
So the king and Haman went to the queen’s banquet. At the banquet, the king again asked Esther what she wanted. He would give her half the kingdom if that is what she desired. But Esther’s only request was the king and Haman come again the next day to another banquet. Then she would let the king know her desire.
Being invited to a banquet with the king by Queen Esther made Haman happy, but the sight of Mordecai sitting by the King’s Gate took that joy away from him. So before going to Esther’s dinner with the king the next day, Haman had gallows built seventy-five feet high to hang Mordecai on. He would talk to the king about it first thing in the morning.
The next morning, Haman went to see the king. But the king hadn’t been able to sleep that night. So he had ordered his records book be brought to him. In it, he saw where Mordecai had brought to light the plot by two of his guards to kill him. He had never awarded Mordecai for this! What honor should he give to Mordecai?
The king asks his servants if there is anyone present in the court, and he is informed that Haman is there, so he has him brought in. He immediately asks Haman, “What should be done for the man the king wishes to honor?”
Haman, of course, thinks the king is talking about him. “For the man the king delights to honor, do this: Bring a royal robe that the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crown on its head. Then give the robe and the horse to one of the king’s most noble princes. Have him robe the man whom the king especially wants to honor; have the prince lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him, ‘This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!’”
10 “Go and do it,” the king said to Haman. “Don’t waste another minute. Take the robe and horse and do what you have proposed to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the King’s Gate. Don’t leave out a single detail of your plan.”
11 So Haman took the robe and horse; he robed Mordecai and led him through the city square, proclaiming before him, “This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!” (The Message, Esther 6:6-11)
How humiliating that had to have been for Haman. But wait. There is yet more to come.
After Haman is done parading Mordecai through the streets and shouting his praises, he rushes home, mortified. As he is telling his wife and friends what he had to do, the king’s eunuchs arrive to take him to the queen’s banquet.
While they are drinking wine at this second banquet, the king once again asks Esther what it is that she wants. Once again, he will even offers her half the kingdom if that is her desire.
3 Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it please the king, give me my life, and give my people their lives.
4 “We’ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed—sold to be massacred, eliminated. If we had just been sold off into slavery, I wouldn’t even have brought it up; our troubles wouldn’t have been worth bothering the king over.”
5 King Xerxes exploded, “Who? Where is he? This is monstrous!”
6 “An enemy. An adversary. This evil Haman,” said Esther.
Haman was terror-stricken before the king and queen.
7-8 The king, raging, left his wine and stomped out into the palace garden.
Haman stood there pleading with Queen Esther for his life—he could see that the king was finished with him and that he was doomed. As the king came back from the palace garden into the banquet hall, Haman was groveling at the couch on which Esther reclined. The king roared out, “Will he even molest the queen while I’m just around the corner?”
When that word left the king’s mouth, all the blood drained from Haman’s face.
9 Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, spoke up: “Look over there! There’s the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, who saved the king’s life. It’s right next to Haman’s house—seventy-five feet high!”
The king said, “Hang him on it!”
10 So Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai. And the king’s hot anger cooled. (The Message, Esther 7:3-10)
Haman being hung on the same gallows he had had built to hang Mordecai on is a perfect example of someone being hoisted on their own petard.
You have probably figure out what it means to be hoist by one’s petard by now, but just in case you haven’t, I’ll tell you. It means to be hurt, ruined, or destroyed by the very device or plot one had intended for another.
There are two more chapters to Esther, and she does manage to save her people from extermination. How? You can read that for yourself.
What is a petard?
A petard is an explosive device formerly used in warfare to blow in a door or gate, form a breach in a wall, etc. To be hoisted, or lifted, by one’s own petard, one is literally blown up.
Writing Prompts:
Tell the story of Haman’s failed attempt at revenge on the Jews in your own words.
Now write Esther’s story, having it take place in modern times instead of Biblical times.
What are some other examples in history of someone being hoisted by his own petard? Write about one or more of them.
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If I remember correctly, R&C were carrying a letter that demanded Hamlet’s execution, but Hamlet rewrote the letter so that it demanded their own execution
Thank you! I really wondered what happened in the story.