Esther 04 The Consternation and Sorrow of the Jews

 Esther 04

The Consternation and Sorrow of the Jews

1 When Mordecai heard all that had happened, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry.

2 And he came to the king's gate, for no one could enter the king's gates wearing sackcloth.

3 And in every province, wherever the king's word and his law came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and lamentation; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4 Then Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was very grieved. She sent garments to put on Mordecai and to take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.

5 Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs whom the king had placed in her presence, and gave him a command to Mordecai, to find out what this was and why.

 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the square of the city that was before the king's gate. 

7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, and also the offering of the silver that Haman had said he would give to the king's treasury for the Jews, to destroy them. 

8 He also gave him the copy of the written law that had been published in Susa to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to make it known to her, and to order her to go to the king and to make supplication and plead in his presence for her people. 

9 So Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. 

10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach and sent word to Mordecai, saying, 

11 All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that for anyone who enters the king's inner court without being summoned, there is only one sentence, and that is death, unless the king holds out the golden scepter to him, that he may live; and I have not been summoned to enter the king these thirty days. 

12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 

13 Then Mordecai ordered Esther to be told again, "Do not imagine that you will escape in the king's house more than all the other Jews. 

14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" 

15 Then Esther told them to tell Mordecai again, 

16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens will fast likewise. Then I will go to the king, though it is not according to the law. If I die, I will die.” 

17 So Mordecai went and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.