4:1 ^[68] 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:

4:2 And came even before the king' s gate: for none [might] enter into the king' s gate clothed with sackcloth:

4:3 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:

4:4 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:

4:5 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:

4:7 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:

4:8 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:

4:9 And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai:

4:10 Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai:

4:11 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:

4:12 And they told to Mordecai Esther' s words:

4:13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king' s house, more than all the Jews:

4:14 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:

4:15 Then Esther bade [them] return Mordecai:

4:16 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:

4:17 So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him: