And he spoke to King Artaxerxes, saying, There is a nation scattered among the nations in all your kingdom, and their laws differ from [those of] all the [other] nations; and they disobey the laws of the king. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them alone.

Then Mordecai said to Hathach, Go, and say to her, Esther, say not to yourself that you alone will escape in the kingdom, more than all the [other] Jews.

For if you shall refuse to heed on this occasion, help and protection will be to the Jews from another quarter; but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows if you have been made queen for this [very] occasion.

For both I and my people have been sold for destruction, and pillage, and slavery; [both] we and our children as bondmen and bondwomen. And I consented not to it, for the slanderer [is] not worthy of the king's palace.

"Behold, I am sending you forth like sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

And he had a foster child, daughter of Aminadab his father's brother, and her name [was] Esther. And when her parents were dead, he brought her up for a wife for himself. And the woman was beautiful.

Now Esther had not revealed her relatives; for so Mordecai commanded her, to fear God, and perform His commandments, as when she was with him: and Esther changed not her manner of life.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.