Esther 4

¹And Mordecai hath known all that hath been done, and Mordecai rendeth his garments, and putteth on sackcloth and ashes, and goeth forth into the midst of the city and crieth—a cry loud and bitter, ²and he cometh in unto the front of the gate of the king, but none is to come in unto the gate of the king with a sackcloth-garment. ³And in every province and province, the place where the word of the king, even his law, is coming, a great mourning have the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and lamenting: sackcloth and ashes are spread for many. ⁴And young women of Esther come in and her eunuchs, and declare it to her, and the queen is exceedingly pained, and sendeth garments to clothe Mordecai, and to turn aside his sackcloth from off him, and he hath not received them.

⁵And Esther calleth to Hatach, of the eunuchs of the king, whom he hath stationed before her, and giveth him a charge for Mordecai, to know what this is, and wherefore this is. ⁶And Hatach goeth out unto Mordecai, unto a broad place of the city, that is before the gate of the king, ⁷and Mordecai declareth to him all that hath met him, and the explanation of the money that Haman said to weigh to the treasuries of the king for the Jews, to destroy them, ⁸and the copy of the writing of the law that had been given in Shushan to destroy them he hath given to him, to shew Esther, and to declare it to her, and to lay a charge on her to go in unto the king, to make supplication to him, and to seek from before him, for her people. ⁹And Hatach cometh in and declareth to Esther the words of Mordecai, ¹⁰and Esther speaketh to Hatach, and chargeth him for Mordecai: ¹¹‘All servants of the king, and people of the provinces of the king, do know that any man and woman, who cometh in unto the king, unto the inner court, who is not called—one law of his is to put them to death, apart from him to whom the king holdeth out the golden sceptre, then he hath lived; and I—I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.’ ¹²And they declare to Mordecai the words of Esther, ¹³and Mordecai speaketh to send back unto Esther: ‘Do not think in thy soul to be delivered in the house of the king, more than all the Jews, ¹⁴but if thou keep entirely silent at this time, respite and deliverance remaineth to the Jews from another place, and thou and the house of thy fathers are destroyed; and who knoweth whether for a time like this thou hast come to the kingdom?’ ¹⁵And Esther speaketh to send back unto Mordecai: ¹⁶‘Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat nor drink three days, by night and by day; also I and my young women do fast likewise, and so I go in unto the king, that is not according to law, and when I have perished—I have perished.’ ¹⁷And Mordecai passeth on, and doth according to all that Esther hath charged upon him.

Chapter 5