^10 (A)Esther had not ^[a]revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it.

Persecutions Are Coming^(A)

^16 (B)“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. ^(C)Therefore be wise as serpents and ^(D)harmless^[a] as doves.

^20 (A)Now Esther had not revealed her family and her people, just as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him.

Children and Parents^(A)

6 Children, ^(B)obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; ^(A)their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain.

⁴ For we have been ^(A)sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as ^(B)male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king’s loss.”

¹³ And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴ For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

⁷ And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, ^(A)his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.