Esther 7:4

For we have been sold ¹  – 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.”

Ge 37:26-28; De 28:68; Jos 9:23; 1Sa 22:23; Ne 5:5; Es 3:9; Es 3:13; Es 4:7,8; Es 7:6; Es 8:11; Ps 44:22,23; Joe 3:6; Am 2:6

¹ sn The passive verb (“have been sold”) is noncommittal and nonaccusatory with regard to the king’s role in the decision to annihilate the Jews.