Esther 4
1 Mordecai learned everything that had happened. He tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, went through the city, and cried out with a loud, bitter cry.
2 He went as far as the king’s gate, because no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate dressed in sackcloth.
3 In every province, wherever the king’s command and law arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and lamenting; many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4 Esther’s young women and eunuchs came and told her. The queen was deeply distressed. She sent clothes for Mordecai to put on and to remove his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.
5 Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and gave him an order concerning Mordecai: he was to find out what this was and why it was happening.
6 Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square in front of the king’s gate.
7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, and the exact amount of silver Haman had promised to weigh out for the king’s treasuries because of the Jews, to destroy them.
8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, to show Esther and tell her about it; he was to instruct her to go to the king, plead with him, and appeal to him on behalf of her people.
9 Hathach returned and told Esther Mordecai’s words.
10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him an order for Mordecai:
11 “All the king’s officials and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard without being summoned is subject to one law: they must be put to death. Only the person to whom the king extends the golden scepter will live. And I have not been summoned to go to the king for thirty days.”
12 They told Mordecai Esther’s words.
13 Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Do not think that you, in the king’s palace, will escape any more than all the other Jews.
14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will come from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows whether you have come to royal status for a time such as this?”
15 Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:
16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast on my behalf. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will fast in the same way. Then I will go to the king, even though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
17 Mordecai went away and did everything Esther had ordered him.
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