8 And Haʹman proceeded to say to King A·has·u·eʹrus: “There is one certain people scattered+ and separated among the peoples in all the jurisdictional districts of your realm;+ and their laws are different from all other people’s, and the king’s own laws they are not performing,+ and for the king it is not appropriate to let them alone.

13 Then Morʹde·cai said to reply to Esther: “Do not imagine within your own soul that the king’s household will escape any more than all the other Jews.+

4 For we have been sold,+ I and my people, to be annihilated, killed and destroyed.+ Now if we had been sold for mere men slaves+ and for mere maidservants, I should have kept silent. But the distress is not appropriate when with damage to the king.”*

16 “Look! I am sending YOU forth as sheep amidst wolves;+ therefore prove yourselves cautious as serpents+ and yet innocent as doves.+