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, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place,^(A) but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”^(B)

³ Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if the king is pleased,^(A) spare my life; this is my request. And spare my people; this is my desire.^{(B) 4} For my people and I have been sold^(C) to destruction, death, and annihilation.^(D) If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves,^(E) I would have kept silent. Indeed, the trouble wouldn’t be worth burdening the king.”