For we have been sold– both I and my people– to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”
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8 I said to them,“To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.
2 On the second day of the banquet of wine the king asked Esther,“What is your request, Queen Esther? It shall be granted to you. And what is your petition? Ask up to half the kingdom, and it shall be done!”
3 Queen Esther replied,“If I have met with your approval, O king, and if the king is so inclined, grant me my life as my request, and my people as my petition.
3 Then Esther again spoke with the king, falling at his feet. She wept and begged him for mercy, that he might nullify the evil of Haman the Agagite and the plot that he had intended against the Jews.
4 When the king extended to Esther the gold scepter, she arose and stood before the king.
5 She said,“If the king is so inclined and if I have met with his approval and if the matter is agreeable to the king and if I am attractive to him, let an edict be written rescinding those recorded intentions of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, which he wrote in order to destroy the Jews who are throughout all the king’s provinces.
6 For how can I watch the calamity that will befall my people, and how can I watch the destruction of my relatives?”
7 King Ahasuerus replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew,“Look, I have already given Haman’s estate to Esther, and he has been hanged on the gallows because he took hostile action against the Jews.
7 Then Mordecai related to him everything that had happened to him, even the specific amount of money that Haman had offered to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews to be destroyed.
8 He also gave him a written copy of the law that had been disseminated in Susa for their destruction so that he could show it to Esther and talk to her about it. He also gave instructions that she should go to the king to implore him and petition him on behalf of her people.
11 “All the servants of the king and the people of the king’s provinces know that there is only one law applicable to any man or woman who comes uninvited to the king in the inner court– that person will be put to death, unless the king extends to him the gold scepter, permitting him to be spared. Now I have not been invited to come to the king for some thirty days!”
12 When Esther’s reply was conveyed to Mordecai,
13 he said to take back this answer to Esther:“Don’t imagine that because you are part of the king’s household you will be the one Jew who will escape.
14 If you keep quiet at this time, liberation and protection for the Jews will appear from another source, while you and your father’s household perish. It may very well be that you have achieved royal status for such a time as this!”
15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:
16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. If I perish, I perish!”
5 Then King Ahasuerus responded to Queen Esther,“Who is this individual? Where is this person to be found who is presumptuous enough to act in this way?”
6 Esther replied,“The oppressor and enemy is this evil Haman!”Then Haman became terrified in the presence of the king and queen.
7 In rage the king arose from the banquet of wine and withdrew to the palace garden. Meanwhile, Haman stood to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king had now determined a catastrophic end for him.
8 When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet of wine, Haman was throwing himself down on the couch where Esther was lying. The king exclaimed,“Will he also attempt to rape the queen while I am still in the building!”As these words left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.
4 Then there were those who said,“We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king on our fields and our vineyards.
5 And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, and our children are just like their children, still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.”
6 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints.
12 Then the king said to Queen Esther,“In Susa the citadel the Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman! What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? What is your request? It shall be given to you. What other petition do you have? It shall be done.”
15 Hasn’t he treated us like foreigners? He not only sold us, but completely wasted the money paid for us!
8 Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus,“There is a particular people that is dispersed and spread among the inhabitants throughout all the provinces of your kingdom whose laws differ from those of all other peoples. Furthermore, they do not observe the king’s laws. It is not appropriate for the king to provide a haven for them.
9 If the king is so inclined, let an edict be issued to destroy them. I will pay 10,000 talents of silver to be conveyed to the king’s treasuries for the officials who carry out this business.”
15 I have now come to speak with my lord the king about this matter, because the people have made me fearful. But your servant said,‘I will speak to the king! Perhaps the king will do what his female servant asks.
16 Yes! The king may listen and deliver his female servant from the hand of the man who seeks to remove both me and my son from the inheritance God has given us!’
7 Now the entire family has risen up against your servant, saying,‘Turn over the one who struck down his brother, so that we can execute him and avenge the death of his brother whom he killed. In so doing we will also destroy the heir.’ They want to extinguish my remaining coal, leaving no one on the face of the earth to carry on the name of my husband.”
1 The King Acts to Protect the Jews On that same day King Ahasuerus gave the estate of Haman, that adversary of the Jews, to Queen Esther. Now Mordecai had come before the king, for Esther had revealed how he was related to her.
14 In light of the fact that we are loyal to the king, and since it does not seem appropriate to us that the king should sustain damage, we are sending the king this information
12 You sold your people for a pittance; you did not ask a high price for them.
7 Esther responded,“My request and my petition is this:
13 Yet all of this fails to satisfy me so long as I have to see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
11 The king thereby allowed the Jews who were in every city to assemble and to stand up for themselves– to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate any army of whatever people or province that should become their adversaries, including their women and children, and to confiscate their property.
4 When Esther’s female attendants and her eunuchs came and informed her about Mordecai’s behavior, the queen was overcome with anguish. Although she sent garments for Mordecai to put on so that he could remove his sackcloth, he would not accept them.
9 Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us to restore the temple of our God and to raise up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
20 If you should report what we’ve been up to, we are not bound by this oath you made us swear.”
2 There were those who said,“With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive.”
7 They answered him,“Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing!
37 Its abundant produce goes to the kings you have placed over us due to our sins. They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they see fit, and we are in great distress!
4 We must pay money for our own water; we must buy our own wood at a steep price.
11 The king replied to Haman,“Keep your money, and do with those people whatever you wish.”
9 If one of us has it, he will die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves!”
9 Look, our fathers died violently and our sons, daughters, and wives were carried off because of this.
14 Shall we once again break your commandments and intermarry with these abominable peoples? Would you not be so angered by us that you would wipe us out, with no survivor or remnant?