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.
We are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed - i:e., by the cruel and perfidious scheme of that man who offered an immense sum of money to purchase our extermination. Esther dwelt on this contemplated atrocity in a variety of expressions, which both evinced the depth of her own emotions, and were intended to awaken similar feelings in the king's breast.
But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue. Though a great calamity to the Jews, the enslavement of that people might have enriched the national exchequer, and, at all events, the policy, if found from experience to be bad, could be altered. But the destruction of such a body of people would be an irreparable evil, and all the talents Haman might pour into the treasury could not compensate for the loss of their services.