² He went as far as the king’s gate because no one was allowed to enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. ³ In each and every province where the king’s command and his decree came there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ So the young women of Esther and her eunuchs came and told her of it. The queen was then seized by anguish. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he could remove his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.