Historical

If I Perish!

4 When Mordecai learned all that was done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city crying out in a loud and bitter voice. ² He went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one could enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. ³ In each and every province where the king’s edict and law came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many put on sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ When Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, the queen was greatly distressed. She sent clothes for Mordecai to put on so he would remove his sackcloth, but he refused. ⁵ So Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to find the cause and reason for this.

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 to him, even the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. ⁸ He also gave him a written copy of the decree, which had been distributed in Shushan, for their annihilation, to show to Esther and to explain it to her. He instructed her to go in to the king, to beg his favor and plead before him on behalf of her people. ⁹ Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said.

¹⁰ Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him instructions for Mordecai: ¹¹ “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces fully understand that for anyone, man or woman, who approaches the king in the inner courtyard without being summoned, he has one law—that he be put to death, unless the king extends his golden scepter permitting him to live. But I have not been summoned to come to the king for 30 days.” ¹² So they conveyed Esther’s words to Mordecai.

¹³ Mordecai told them to reply to Esther with this answer, “Do not think in your soul that you will escape in the king’s household more than all the Jews. ¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place—but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows whether you have attained royal status for such a time as this?”

¹⁵ Esther sent this to reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶ “Go! Gather together all the Jews who are in Shushan and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast in the same way. Afterwards, I will go in to the king, even though it is not according to the law. So if I perish, I perish!”

¹⁷ So Mordecai left and did all that Esther commanded him.

Esther’s Request of the King

5 On the third day, Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance. ² When the king saw Queen Esther standing in the courtyard, she found favor in his eyes, so the king held out to Esther the golden scepter in his hand and Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.

³ Then said the king to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? Whatever you request, even as much as half of the kingdom, it will be given to you.”

⁴ So Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come this day to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”

⁵ The king replied, “Bring Haman quickly so we may do what Esther said.” Then the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther prepared. ⁶ As they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your request? It will be granted to you. Whatever you request, even as much as half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.”

⁷ Esther answered and said, “My petition and my request is this: ⁸ if I have found favor in the king’s eyes and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and my request, then let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them—and then I will do as the king requests.”

Gallows for Mordecai

⁹ Haman went out that day happy and in good spirits. However, when Haman saw Mordecai at the king’s gate, and he did not rise or tremble before him, Haman was filled with rage against Mordecai. ¹⁰ Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home.

He sent for his friends and his wife Zeresh. ¹¹ Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and how the king had promoted him and exalted him above the other officials and servants of the king. ¹² Haman added, “And that’s not all! Queen Esther invited only me to accompany the king to a banquet that she prepared. And she has also invited me along with the king tomorrow. ¹³ Yet all this does not satisfy me, as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

¹⁴ Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Let them set up a gallows 50 cubits high, and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go happily with the king to the banquet.” This idea delighted Haman and he ordered the gallows to be built.

The King Honors Mordecai

6 That night sleep deserted the king, so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, be brought in and read before the king. ² It was found recorded there that Mordecai had revealed that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the door, had conspired to kill King Ahasuerus.

³ The king asked, “What honor or recognition has been shown to Mordecai for this?”

The king’s servants that attended him replied, “Nothing has been done for him.”

⁴ The king said, “Who is in the courtyard?” Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

⁵ The king’s servants answered, “Haman is standing in the courtyard.”

The king said, “Let him come in.”

⁶ When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for a man whom the king desires to honor?”

Now Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king desire to honor rather than me?” ⁷ So Haman replied, “For the man whom the king desires to honor, ⁸ let them bring a royal robe that the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on his head. ⁹ Then let the robe and the horse be placed into the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them clothe the man whom the king desires to honor and parade him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming, ‘This is what is done for a man the king desires to honor!’”

¹⁰ The king said to Haman, “Go quickly! Take the robe and the horse, just as you suggested, for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate! Do not neglect anything that you recommended.”

¹¹ So Haman took the robe and the horse, robed Mordecai, and paraded him through the city streets, proclaiming: “This is what is done for the man whom the king desires to honor.” ¹² Afterwards, Mordecai then returned to the king’s gate, but Haman rushed to his home, grief-stricken and with his head covered.

¹³ Haman recounted to his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom you have begun your downfall, is of Jewish descent, you won’t be able to stand against him. In fact, you will certainly fall before him!” ¹⁴ While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came and hurried Haman along to the banquet Esther had prepared.