MORDECAI APPEALS TO ESTHER

4 When Mordecai learned all that had occurred,x he tore his clothes,y put on sackcloth and ashes,z went into the middle of the city, and cried loudly and bitterly.aa 2 He went only as far as the King’s Gate,ab since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the King’s Gate. 3 There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edictac reached. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.ad

4 Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear.ae She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so that he would take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them. 5 Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who attended her, and dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what he was doing and why.D 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the King’s Gate. 7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened as well as the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay the royal treasury for the slaughter of the Jews.af

8 Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa ordering their destruction, so that Hathach might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and command her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead with him personally for her people.ag