| Chapter 4
|
| 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 women, 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. |
