[1] When Mor'decai learned all that had been done, Mor'decai rent his
clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the
city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry; [2] he went up to the entrance of
the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with
sackcloth. [3] And in every province, wherever the king's command and his
decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and
weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes. [4]
When Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply
distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mor'decai, so that he might take
off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. [5] Then Esther called for
Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her,
and ordered him to go to Mor'decai to learn what this was and why it was.
[6] Hathach went out to Mor'decai in the open square of the city in front
of the king's gate, [7] and Mor'decai told him all that had happened to
him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the
king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. [8] Mor'decai also gave
him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that
he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and charge her to go to
the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people. [9]
And Hathach went and told Esther what Mor'decai had said. [10] Then Esther
spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mor'decai, saying, [11] "All
the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any
man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called,
there is but one law; all alike are to be put to death, except the one to
whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. And I have not
been called to come in to the king these thirty days." [12] And they told
Mor'decai what Esther had said. [13] Then Mor'decai told them to return
answer to Esther, "Think not that in the king's palace you will escape any
more than all the other Jews. [14] For if you keep silence at such a time
as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another
quarter, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether
you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" [15] Then Esther
told them to reply to Mor'decai, [16] "Go, gather all the Jews to be found
in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three
days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go
to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish." [17]
Mor'decai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
