Now when Mordecai learned about what was done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth with ashes, went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry; 2and he came before the king’s gate: for no one may enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. 3In every province, wherever the king’s command and decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her; and the queen was very grieved. She sent clothing to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from him; but he would not receive it. 5Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and instructed him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and why it was. 6So Hathach went to Mordecai in the city square before the king’s gate. 7Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. 8He also gave him a copy of the written decree that was given out in Susa to destroy them, to show it to Esther, to declare it to her, and to instruct her that she should go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him for her people.
9Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. 10Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai saying: 11“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that whoever, whether man or woman, shall come to the king into the inner court without being called, there is but one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.
12They told Esther’s words to Mordecai. 13Then Mordecai asked them to give this answer to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house, any more than all the Jews. 14For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows whether you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
15Then Esther asked them to give this answer to Mordecai, 16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast in the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” 17So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.