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.”

⁹ If it pleases the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”

⁶⁸ “And the Lord ^(A)will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ^(B)‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

¹³ And the letters were ^(A)sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, ^(B)in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and ^(C)to plunder their ^[a]possessions.

¹¹ By these letters the king permitted the Jews who were in every city to ^(A)gather together and protect their lives—to ^(B)destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province that would assault them, both little children and women, and to plunder their possessions,

Judgment on Israel

⁶ Thus says the Lord:

⁶ And Esther said, “The adversary and ^(A)enemy is this wicked Haman!”

So Haman was terrified before the king and queen.

⁷ And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and ^(A)the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews. ⁸ He also gave him ^(B)a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at ^[a]Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people.