4
1 Now
when Mordecai
found out all
that was done,
Mordecai tore his
clothes and put
on sackcloth
with ashes, and
went out into
the middle of
the city, and
wailed loudly and
bitterly.
2 He
came even before
the king’s gate,
for no one
is allowed inside
the king’s gate
clothed with
sackcloth.
3 In
every province,
wherever the king’s
commandment and
his decree came,
there was great
mourning among the
Jews, and fasting,
and weeping, and
wailing; and many
lay in sackcloth
and ashes.
4 Esther’s
maidens and her
eunuchs came and
told her this,
and the queen
was exceedingly
grieved. She sent
clothing to
Mordecai, to replace
his sackcloth, but
he didn’t receive
it.
5 Then Esther
called for Hathach,
one of the
king’s eunuchs,
whom he had
appointed to
attend her, and
commanded him to
go to Mordecai,
to find out
what this was,
and why it
was.
6 So
Hathach went out
to Mordecai, to
the city square
which was before
the king’s gate.
7 Mordecai
told him of
all that had
happened to him,
and the exact
sum of the
money that Haman
had promised to
pay to the
king’s treasuries
for the destruction
of the Jews.
8 He
also gave him
the copy of
the writing of
the decree that
was given out
in Susa to
destroy them, to
show it to Esther,
and to declare
it to her,
and to urge her
to go in
to the king
to make
supplication to
him, and to
make request
before him for
her people.
9 Hathach
came and
told Esther the
words of Mordecai.
10 Then Esther
spoke to Hathach,
and gave him
a message to
Mordecai:
11 “All
the king’s
servants and the
people of the
king’s provinces
know that whoever,
whether man or
woman, comes to
the king into
the inner court
without being
called, there is
one law for
him, that he
be put to
death, except
those to whom
the king might hold
out the golden
scepter, that he
may live. I
have not been
called to come
in to the
king these thirty
days.”
12 They
told Esther’s words
to Mordecai.
13 Then
Mordecai asked them
to return this
answer to Esther: “Don’t
think to yourself
that you will
escape in the
king’s house any
more than all
the Jews.
14 For
if you remain
silent now, then
relief and
deliverance will
come to the
Jews from another
place, but you
and your father’s
house will perish.
Who knows if
you haven’t come
to the kingdom
for such a
time as this?”
15 Then Esther
asked them to
answer Mordecai,
16 “Go,
gather together
all the Jews
who are present
in Susa, and
fast for me,
and neither eat
nor drink three
days, night or
day. I and
my maidens will
also fast the
same way. Then
I will go
in to the
king, which is
against the law;
and if I perish,
I perish.”
17 So
Mordecai went his
way, and did
according to all
that Esther had
commanded him.