For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage.

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For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated.(A) If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. Esther 7:4 Or quiet, but the compensation our adversary offers cannot be compared with the loss the king would suffer

If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries.

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If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents[a] of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.”(A)

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Footnotes

  1. Esther 3:9 That is, about 375 tons or about 340 metric tons

68 And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

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68 The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.(A) There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

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13 And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.

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13 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews(A)—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar,(B) and to plunder(C) their goods.

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11 Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey,

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11 The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate the armed men of any nationality or province who might attack them and their women and children,[a] and to plunder(A) the property of their enemies.

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Footnotes

  1. Esther 8:11 Or province, together with their women and children, who might attack them;

Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;

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Judgment on Israel

This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Israel,
    even for four, I will not relent.(A)
They sell the innocent for silver,
    and the needy for a pair of sandals.(B)

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The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

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You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,(A) that you might send them far from their homeland.

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22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.

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22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep(A) to be slaughtered.(B)

23 Awake,(C) Lord! Why do you sleep?(D)
    Rouse yourself!(E) Do not reject us forever.(F)

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And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

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Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

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And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.

Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for her people.

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Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews.(A) He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

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Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

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Although we are of the same flesh and blood(A) as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery.(B) Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”(C)

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23 Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard.

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23 Stay with me; don’t be afraid. The man who wants to kill you(A) is trying to kill me too. You will be safe with me.”

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23 Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.

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23 You are now under a curse:(A) You will never be released from service as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

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