Esther 4:1-8

English Standard Version

Esther Agrees to Help the Jews

4 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes ^(A)and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. ² He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth. ³ And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, ^(B)with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them ^(C)lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ When Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. ⁵ Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was. ⁶ Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate, ⁷ and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, ^(D)and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. ⁸ Mordecai also gave him ^(E)a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction,^[a] that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him^[b] on behalf of her people.