Esther
4
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3 4 5
6 7 8
9 10
1 When Mordecai
perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on
sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and
cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
2 And came even before the king’s
gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed
with sackcloth.
3 And in every province,
whithersoever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there
was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping,
and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4 So Esther’s maids and her
chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen
exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and
to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it
not.
5 Then called Esther for Hatach,
one of the king’s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to
attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know
what it was, and why it was.
6 So Hatach went forth to
Mordecai unto the street of the city, which was before the
king’s gate.
7 And Mordecai told him of all
that had happened unto him, and of the sum of the money that Haman
had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to
destroy them.
8 Also he gave
him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at
Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to
declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go
in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make
request before him for her people.
9 And Hatach came and told Esther
the words of Mordecai.
10 Again Esther spake unto Hatach,
and gave him commandment unto Mordecai;
11 All the king’s servants, and
the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever,
whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner
court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put
him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the
golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to
come in unto the king these thirty days.
12 And they told to Mordecai
Esther’s words.
13 Then Mordecai commanded to
answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in
the king’s house, more than all the Jews.
14 For if thou
altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there
enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place;
but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who
knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a
time as this?
15 Then Esther bade them
return Mordecai this answer,
16 Go, gather together all the
Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither
eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will
fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is
not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
17 So Mordecai went his way, and
did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
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