Dalphon is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Dalphon was one of the ten sons of Haman, the chief enemy of the Jews in the Book of Esther. Haman was an official in the court of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes) of Persia who, enraged that the Jew Mordecai would not bow to him, plotted to destroy all the Jews throughout the empire. His scheme was exposed through Queen Esther, herself a Jew, and the king ordered Haman hanged on the very gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.
Dalphon appears only once in Scripture, in a list of Haman’s ten sons: “And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha” (Esther 9:7). These sons were killed by the Jews on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, the day Haman had chosen by lot for the destruction of the Jewish people. Instead of the Jews being destroyed, the king’s decree permitted them to defend themselves, and they struck down those who sought their harm, including Haman’s ten sons.
Scripture records nothing else about Dalphon—no words, no deeds, no personal choices. He is named only as one of the fallen. His death, along with his brothers’, is noted in the account of the deliverance that the Jews commemorated afterward in the feast of Purim.
The Name
The name Dalphon is a Hebrew transliteration of a Persian name, and its meaning is not clearly recoverable. Various suggestions have been offered by scholars, but none is well established, and the text itself gives no interpretation. As with several of the names in this list, the safest statement is that the meaning is uncertain. The name is preserved in Scripture as a personal identifier rather than as a wordplay or teaching device.
A Closing Thought
Dalphon’s story is a sobering reminder that we can be swept up in the consequences of a path we did not choose for ourselves. He inherited his father’s hostility toward God’s people and perished with him. Yet the same passage that records his death also records the deliverance of the Jews—a testimony that God preserves His people even when powerful enemies rise against them. It is a call to examine the loyalties we inherit and to place our trust not in the schemes of the proud, but in the God who defends the humble.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- Esther 9:7 — And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,