Esther 4:1-8 ▼

1 Now Mordecai came to know of all that had been done. And he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and cried out loudly and bitterly.

2 And he went as far as the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.

3 Now in each and every province where the word and law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many made their bed in sackcloth and ashes.

4 Then Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen writhed in great anguish. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to remove his sackcloth from upon him, but he did not accept them.

5 Then Esther summoned Hathach from the king’s eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai to know what this was and why it was.

6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai to the city square in front of the king’s gate.

7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact amount of silver that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries to cause the Jews to perish.

8 He also gave him a copy of the written law which had been given in Susa for their destruction, in order to show Esther and to tell her and to command her to go in to the king to implore his favor and to seek him out for her people.