Esther 4
4
Esther Agrees to Help the Jews
1When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he #2 Sam. 1:11; Esth. 3:8–10; Jon. 3:5, 6tore his clothes and put on sackcloth #Josh. 7:6; Ezek. 27:30and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He #Gen. 27:34cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2He went as far as the front of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. 3And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4So Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them. 5Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. 6So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate. 7And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and #Esth. 3:9the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries to destroy the Jews. 8He also gave him #Esth. 3:14, 15a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. 9So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai: 11“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into #Esth. 5:1, 6:4the inner court to the king, who has not been called, #Dan. 2:9he has but one law: put all to death, except the one #Esth. 5:2, 8:4to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been #Esth. 2:14called to go in to the king these thirty days.” 12So they told Mordecai Esther’s words.
13And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
15Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: 16“Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for #Esth. 5:1three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; #Gen. 43:14and if I perish, I perish!”
17So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.
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Esther 4: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Esther 4
4
Mordecai Asks for Esther's Help
1When Mordecai learnt of all that had been done, he tore his clothes in anguish. Then he dressed in sackcloth, covered his head with ashes, and walked through the city, wailing loudly and bitterly, 2until he came to the entrance of the palace. He did not go in because no one wearing sackcloth was allowed inside. 3Throughout all the provinces, wherever the king's proclamation was made known, there was loud mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept and wailed, and most of them put on sackcloth and lay in ashes.
4When Esther's young women and eunuchs told her what Mordecai was doing, she was deeply disturbed. She sent Mordecai some clothes to put on instead of the sackcloth, but he would not accept them. 5Then she called Hathach, one of the palace eunuchs appointed as her servant by the king, and told him to go to Mordecai and find out what was happening and why. 6Hathach went to Mordecai in the city square at the entrance of the palace. 7Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him and just how much money Haman had promised to put into the royal treasury if all the Jews were killed. 8He gave Hathach a copy of the proclamation that had been issued in Susa, ordering the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai asked him to take it to Esther, explain the situation to her, and ask her to go and plead with the king and beg him to have mercy on her people. 9Hathach did this, 10and Esther gave him this message to take back to Mordecai: 11“If anyone, man or woman, goes to the inner courtyard and sees the king without being summoned, that person must die. That is the law; everyone, from the king's advisers to the people in the provinces, knows that. There is only one way to get round this law: if the king holds out his gold sceptre to someone, then that person's life is spared. But it has been a month since the king sent for me.”
12When Mordecai received Esther's message, 13he sent her this warning: “Don't imagine that you are safer than any other Jew just because you are in the royal palace. 14If you keep quiet at a time like this, help will come from heaven to the Jews, and they will be saved, but you will die and your father's family will come to an end. Yet who knows — maybe it was for a time like this that you were made queen!”
15Esther sent Mordecai this reply: 16“Go and gather all the Jews in Susa together; hold a fast and pray for me. Don't eat or drink anything for three days and nights. My young women and I will be doing the same. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. If I must die for doing it, I will die.”
17Mordecai then left and did everything that Esther had told him to do.
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.