Esther 5:11

recounted unto them A.V. less accurately, told them of.

and the multitude of his children lit. and the multitude of his sons. Of these there were ten (Esther 9:7 ff.). Clearly his wife and intimates would be familiar with the size of his family. The point of his remark, however, lies in the circumstance that among the Persians, as also with the Jews (see Psalms 127:4 f.), to have many sons was considered to redound to a man's credit (Herod. i. 136).

A characteristic comment in the Targum tells us that Haman had, besides these, 208 other sons. This it deduces from the combined numerical values of the three letters of the (one) Hebrew word rendered -and the multitude. [73] "

[73] ורב. ו = 6, ר = 200, ב = 2.