Skip to content
Esther / Mordecai's Plea and Esther's Resolve
Navigation
A A

Mordecai's Plea and Esther's Resolve

Esther 4:1-17

4
Chapter 4
1 Mordecai knew all that had been done. He tore his garments, put on sackcloth and ashes, went out into the midst of the city, and cried out with a great and bitter cry. 2 And he came as far as before the gate of the king, for it is not permitted to enter the gate of the king in clothing of sackcloth. 3 And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting; sackcloth and ashes were spread out for many. 4 Esther's maidens and her eunuchs came and told her. The queen trembled greatly. She sent garments for Mordecai to wear and to remove his sackcloth of mourning, but he did not accept them. 5 And Esther called Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs whom he had stationed before her, and she commanded him concerning Mordecai to know what this was and why this was. 6 The eunuch went out to Mordecai in the street of the city that was before the King's Gate. 7 Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the exact sum of the silver that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. 8 And he gave him a copy of the decree that he had issued in Susa to destroy them, to show Esther and to tell her and to command her to go to the king to beg him and to seek from him for her people. 9 And the eunuch came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. 10 And Esther commanded him to go and tell Mordecai. 11 All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who comes to the king in the inner court who is not called—one is his law to put to death—except the one to whom the king extends the gold scepter so that he lives. And I have not been called to come to the king these thirty days. 12 And they told Mordecai the words of Esther. 13 And Mordecai said to return to Esther, "Do not imagine that you will escape in the king's house from all the Jews in your vital life force." 14 For if you keep silent at this time, breath and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have reached the kingdom for a time such as this. 15 And Esther commanded him to return to Mordecai. 16 Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast for me—do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. Also I and my girls will fast in this way, and in this way I will go to the king, which is not according to law, and as I perish, I perish. 17 And Mordecai went away and did all that Esther had commanded him.