Esther 7:4 (ESV)

4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have been silent, for our affliction is not to be compared with the loss to the king.”

Esther did not directly mention Haman, but she certainly had his gift of ten thousand talents of silver in mind when she said that she and her people had been sold (see Esther 3:9).

The second part of this verse presents some difficulties for translating. We agree with the NIV: No such distress [as that of slavery] would justify disturbing the king. Israel’s history was filled with accounts of oppression and slavery. This time, however, they were facing total annihilation.