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The Book of Esther 4

4 When Mordecai found out about Haman’s plan to kill all the Jews, as signs of grief he tore his clothes and put on rough sackcloth and threw ashes over himself. Then he started walking towards the city center, towards the king’s palace, crying out in anguish. 2 But no one who was wearing sackcloth was allowed inside the king’s gate. So when Mordecai reached the gate, he had to stay just outside of it. 3 In every province of the empire, the letter that said to destroy the Jews was announced in public. When the Jews heard about it, they mourned greatly. They went without food and wailed loudly. Many of them also put on sackcloth and threw ashes on themselves and lay on the ground. 4 Esther’s female attendants came with her guardians and told her that Mordecai was sitting outside the gate wearing sackcloth. When she heard about this, Queen Esther herself became very afraid. She sent Mordecai some good clothes to wear instead of the sackcloth, but he refused to put them on.

5 The king had assigned some of the royal guardians to Esther personally. So Esther called for one of them, a man named Hathak. She told him to go out and speak with Mordecai and find out why he was so distressed that he was sitting at the king’s gate wearing sackcloth. 6 So Hathak went out to speak with Mordecai, who was in the plaza in front of the king’s gate. 7 Mordecai told Hathak everything that Haman was planning to do to the Jews. He even told him how much money Haman said the king would get for his treasuries if the king commanded people to kill all of the Jews. 8 Mordecai also gave Hathak a copy of the letter that the heralds had read out loud in Susa and that said that people must kill all of the Jews. He told Hathak to show the letter to Esther so that she would know exactly what it said. He also told him to urge her to go to the king personally and to beg him desperately to save her people from destruction. 9 So Hathak returned to Esther and told her what Mordecai had said.

10 Then Esther told Hathak to go back to Mordecai with this message: 11 “There is a law about going to the king that applies to everyone in the kingdom, both men and women. If anyone goes into the inner courtyard of the palace, where the king can see them, and the king has not summoned them, that person will die. Only if the king holds out his golden scepter to them, then they will live. Everyone in the whole empire knows this law. So I cannot go and speak to the king as you have requested. The king has not called for me in over a month, and if I go without being summoned, I could be put to death.” 12 So Hathak went back to Mordecai and told him what Esther had said.

13 Mordecai told Hathak to tell this to Esther: “Do not imagine that just because you live there in the king’s palace that you will be safe when they kill all the other Jews. 14 If you say nothing at all now, someone from some other place will rescue the Jews, but you and your relatives will not survive. Who knows, perhaps it was for just such a time as this that you became queen.” 15 After Hathak told this to Esther, she told him to go back to Mordecai and say this to him: 16 “Gather together all the Jews who live here in Susa and tell them to fast and pray for my sake. Tell them to not eat or drink anything for three days and three nights. My female attendants and I will also fast in the same way. At the end of the three days, I will go to talk to the king, even though doing that is against the law. I will do that even if it costs me my life.” 17 So after Hathach told this to Mordecai, he went and did everything that Esther had told him to do.

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