Esther 4:1–6:14
Esther Agrees to Help the Jews
4 When Mordecai learned all that had happened, 1he atore his clothes and put on sackcloth band ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He ccried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. 3 And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4 So Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, 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 she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate. 7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and dthe sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews. 8 He also gave him ea copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at 2Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. 9 So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: 11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into fthe inner court to the king, who has not been called, ghe has but one law: put all to death, except the one hto whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been icalled to go in to the king these thirty days.” 12 So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.
13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in 3Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for jthree days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; kand if I perish, I perish!”
17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded 4him.
5 Now it happened aon the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in bthe inner court of the king’s palace, across from the king’s house, while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the 1house. 2 So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that cshe found favor in his sight, and dthe king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter.
3 And the king said to her, “What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? eIt shall be given to you—up to half the kingdom!”
4 So Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”
5 Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, that he may do as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
6 At the banquet of wine fthe king said to Esther, g“What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request, up to half the kingdom? It shall be done!”
7 Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and request is this: 8 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and 2fulfill my request, then let the king and Haman come to the hbanquet which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.”
9 So Haman went out that day ijoyful and with a glad heart; but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and jthat he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai. 10 Nevertheless Haman krestrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh. 11 Then Haman told them of his great riches, lthe multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had madvanced him above the officials and servants of the king.
12 Moreover Haman said, “Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her, along with the king. 13 Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
14 Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a ngallows 3be made, 4fifty cubits high, and in the morning osuggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with the king to the banquet.”
And the thing pleased Haman; so he had pthe gallows made.
6 That night 1the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring athe book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. 2 And it was found written that Mordecai had told of 2Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 Then the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?”
And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
4 So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered bthe outer court of the king’s palace cto suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
5 The king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.”
And the king said, “Let him come in.”
6 So Haman came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?”
Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than dme?” 7 And Haman answered the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, 8 let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and ea horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal 3crest placed on its head. 9 Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then 4parade him on horseback through the city square, fand proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ ”
10 Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.”
11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”
12 Afterward Mordecai went back to the king’s gate. But Haman ghurried to his house, mourning hand with his head covered. 13 When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against ihim but will surely fall before him.”
14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hastened to bring Haman to jthe banquet which Esther had prepared.