Esther 3:8-11
Then Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples of every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, and they do not obey the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. / 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.” / So the king removed the signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. ...

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.”

Esther 8:6
For how could I bear to see the disaster that would befall my people? How could I bear to see the destruction of my kindred?”

Esther 9:24-25
For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them. / But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

Nehemiah 1:3-4
And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” / When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Daniel 6:13-14
Then they told the king, “Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, shows no regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed. He still makes his petition three times a day.” / As soon as the king heard this, he was deeply distressed and set his mind on delivering Daniel, and he labored until sundown to rescue him.

Daniel 9:3
So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Genesis 45:4-5
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” And they did so. “I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt! / And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you.

Exodus 3:7-9
The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings. / I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. / And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them.

2 Kings 19:1-4
On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD. / And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz / to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. ...

Psalm 79:1-4
A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble. / They have given the corpses of Your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth. / They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead. ...

Psalm 137:1-3
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. / There on the willows we hung our harps, / for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”

Isaiah 37:1-4
On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD. / And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz / to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. ...

Jeremiah 29:7
Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Lamentations 1:3-5
Judah has gone into exile under affliction and harsh slavery; she dwells among the nations but finds no place to rest. All her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of her distress. / The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish. / Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. For the LORD has brought her grief because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone away as captives before the enemy.