¹² Esther’s response was reported to Mordecai.

¹³ Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. ¹⁴ If you keep silent at this time, liberation and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place,^(A) but you and your father’s house will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”^(B)