^4 (A)For we have been sold, I and my people, ^(B)to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”

⁹ If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents^[a] of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries.”

⁶⁸ And the Lord ^(A)will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that ^(B)you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

¹³ Letters were sent ^(A)by couriers to all the king's provinces with instruction ^(B)to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, ^(C)in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, ^(D)and to plunder their goods.

¹¹ saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city ^(A)to gather and defend their lives, ^(B)to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, children and women included, ^(C)and to plunder their goods,

Judgment on Israel

⁶ Thus says the Lord:

⁶ You have sold ^(A)the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border.

⁶ And Esther said, ^(A)“A foe and enemy! This wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

⁷ and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, ^(A)and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. ⁸ Mordecai also gave him ^(B)a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction,^[a] that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him^[b] on behalf of her people.