Esther Chapter 4
Mordecai Persuades Esther to Help
1 When Mordecai found out what had happened, he tore his clothes, put on burlap and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. 2 He went as far as the king’s gate, because nobody was supposed to enter the king’s gate dressed in burlap. 3 In every province where the decree had gone, the Jews were mourning greatly with fasting, crying, wailing. Many were lying on burlap and ashes.
4 Then Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, and she writhed in anguish. She sent clothes to Mordecai so he’d take off his burlap, but he didn’t accept them. 5 Then she summoned Hathach from the king’s eunuchs, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and told him to go to Mordecai and find out why he was in mourning. 6 He went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the king’s gate. 7 Mordecai told him what had happened, and the amount of money Haman promised to pay the king’s treasuries for destroying the Jews. 8 He gave Hathach a copy of the edict issued in Susa for their destruction. That way he could show Esther and have her go in to the king and implore his help and plead with him for her people. Esther 4:1-8
9 Hathach came back with Mordecai’s message. 10 She told him to answer Mordecai.
11 “All the king’s aides and the people in his provinces know that he has just one law for any man or woman who comes to his inner court without being summoned: he’s to be executed unless the king extends the gold scepter to him. I haven’t been summoned to him for 30 days.”
12 They relayed that message to Mordecai.
13 He told them to tell her,
“Don’t imagine that in the king’s palace you can escape any more than the other Jews. 14 If you don’t speak up, deliverance will come from someplace else. You and your father’s family will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for a time like this.”
15 She told them to answer Mordecai,
16 “Get the Jews together that are in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will do the same. I’ll go in to the king, which is against the law. If I die, I die.”
17 Mordecai did what she said. Esther 4:9-17