Esther 7:2-4

2And the king said to Esther on the second day also 1as they drank their wine at the banquet, “2What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? 3Even to half of the kingdom it shall be done.”

3Then Queen Esther replied, “4If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me as my petition, and my people as my request;

4for 5we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, 6to be killed and to be annihilated. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for the 7trouble would not be commensurate with the 8annoyance to the king.”