Bible Strands
Esther 7:4
For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Queen Esther addresses King Xerxes during her second audience, immediately after petitioning for her own life and the lives of her people. She speaks to reveal the severity of Haman’s plotted decree against the Jews.
The words — נִמְכַּרְנוּ (nimkar nu) translates literally as "we have been sold," while לְהַשְׁמִיד (lehashmid), לַהֲרוֹג (laharog), and לְאַבֵּד (le'aved) form a triad meaning "to annihilate, to kill, and to destroy."
The thread — The language of selling and destruction echoes Esther 3:9 and Esther 3:13, where Haman proposes and issues the decree, and Deuteronomy 28:68, which warns of being sold back into slavery.
Why it lands — The text states that the Jews were sold to total eradication rather than mere servitude, which Esther argues justifies burdening the king. It requires the reader to distinguish between economic exploitation and existential threat, recognizing that only the latter demands immediate royal intervention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.
Cross-references
- Esther 3:9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.”
- Deuteronomy 28:68 The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
- Esther 3:13 And the letters were sent by couriers to each of the royal provinces with the order to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—and to plunder their possessions on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month.
- Esther 8:11 By these letters the king permitted the Jews in each and every city the right to assemble and defend themselves, to destroy, kill, and annihilate all the forces of any people or province hostile to them, including women and children, and to plunder their possessions.
- Genesis 37:26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?
- Joshua 9:23 Now therefore you are under a curse and will perpetually serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”
- 1 Samuel 22:23 Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks your life is seeking mine as well. You will be safe with me.”
- Nehemiah 5:5 We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”
- Esther 4:7 and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury in order to destroy the Jews.
- Esther 7:6 Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.