Esther 4:10-17

Living Bible

¹⁰ Esther told Hathach to go back and say to Mordecai, ¹¹ “All the world knows that anyone, whether man or woman, who goes into the king’s inner court without his summons is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter; and the king has not called for me to come to him in more than a month.”

¹² So Hathach gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.

¹³ This was Mordecai’s reply to Esther: “Do you think you will escape there in the palace when all other Jews are killed? ¹⁴ If you keep quiet at a time like this, God will deliver the Jews from some other source, but you and your relatives will die; what’s more, who can say but that God has brought you into the palace for just such a time as this?”

¹⁵ Then Esther sent this message to Mordecai: ¹⁶ “Go and gather together all the Jews of Shushan and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day; and I and my maids will do the same; and then, though it is strictly forbidden, I will go in to see the king; and if I perish, I perish.”

¹⁷ So Mordecai did as Esther told him to.