Mordecai Appeals to Esther

4 When Mordecai learned all that had occurred,^(A) he tore his clothes,^(B) put on sackcloth and ashes,^(C) went into the middle of the city, and cried loudly and bitterly.^{(D) 2} He went only as far as the King’s Gate,^(E) since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the King’s Gate. ³ There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edict^(F) reached. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.^(G)

⁴ Esther’s female servants and her eunuchs came and reported the news to her, and the queen was overcome with fear.^(H) She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear so that he would take off his sackcloth, but he did not accept them. ⁵ Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who attended her, and dispatched him to Mordecai to learn what he was doing and why.^{[a] 6} So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the King’s Gate. ⁷ Mordecai told him everything that had happened as well as the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay the royal treasury for the slaughter of the Jews.^(I)

⁸ Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa ordering their destruction, so that Hathach might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and command her to approach the king, implore his favor, and plead with him personally for her people.^{(J) 9} Hathach came and repeated Mordecai’s response to Esther.

¹⁰ Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to tell Mordecai, ¹¹ “All the royal officials and the people of the royal provinces know that one law applies to every man or woman who approaches the king in the inner courtyard^(K) and who has not been summoned—the death penalty^(L)—unless the king extends the gold scepter, allowing that person to live.^(M) I have not been summoned to appear before the king^(N) for the last^[b] thirty days.” ¹² Esther’s response was reported to Mordecai.

¹³ Mordecai told the messenger to reply to Esther, “Don’t think that you will escape the fate of all the Jews because you are in the king’s palace. ¹⁴ If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place,^(O) but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”^(P)

Esther Intervenes for the Jews

8 That same day King Ahasuerus awarded Queen Esther the estate^(A) of Haman, the enemy of the Jews.^(B) Mordecai entered the king’s presence because Esther had revealed her relationship to Mordecai.^{(C) 2} The king removed his signet ring he had recovered from Haman^(D) and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther put him in charge of Haman’s estate.

³ Then Esther addressed the king again.^(E) She fell at his feet, wept, and begged^(F) him to revoke the evil of Haman the Agagite^(G) and his plot he had devised against the Jews.^{(H) 4} The king extended the gold scepter^(I) toward Esther, so she got up and stood before the king.

⁵ She said, “If it pleases the king and I have found favor with him, if the matter seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes,^(J) let a royal edict be written. Let it revoke the documents the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.^{(K) 6} For how could I bear to see the disaster that would come on my people?^(L) How could I bear to see the destruction of my relatives?” ^(M)

⁷ King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have given Haman’s estate to Esther,^(N) and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked^[a] the Jews.^{(O) 8} Write in the king’s name whatever pleases you^(P) concerning the Jews, and seal it with the royal signet ring.^(Q) A document written in the king’s name and sealed with the royal signet ring cannot be revoked.”^(R)

²⁰ You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.^(A)

⁴ When the time came to completion, God sent his Son,^(A) born of a woman,^(B) born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.^{(C) 6} And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son^(D) into our^[a] hearts, crying, “Abba,^[b] Father!” ^{(E) 7} So you are no longer a slave^(F) but a son,^(G) and if a son, then God has made you an heir.^(H)