Esther 4–5

Esther Agrees to Help the Jews

4When 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. ²He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. ³And 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.

⁴So 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. ⁵Then 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. ⁶So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate. ⁷And 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. ⁸He 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. ⁹So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

¹⁰Then 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.” ¹²So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.

¹³And 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. ¹⁴For 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?”

¹⁵Then 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!”

¹⁷So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded ⁴him.

Esther’s Banquet

5Now 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. ²So 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.

³And 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!”

⁴So Esther answered, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”

⁵Then 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.

⁶At 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!”

⁷Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and request is this: ⁸If 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.”

Haman’s Plot Against Mordecai

⁹So 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. ¹⁰Nevertheless Haman ^krestrained himself and went home, and he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh. ¹¹Then 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.

¹²Moreover 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. ¹³Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

¹⁴Then 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.