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¹ Now when Mordecai knew 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;² and he came even before the king's gate: for none might enter inside the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.³ And in every province, wherever 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 And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it to her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him; but he did not receive it.

⁵ Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend on her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and why it was.⁶ So Hathach went forth to Mordecai to the broad place of the city, which was before the king's gate.⁷ And Mordecai 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 Jews, to destroy them.⁸ Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to charge her that she should go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people.⁹ And Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.¹⁰ Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a message to Mordecai [saying]:¹¹ All the king's slaves, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whoever, whether man or woman, shall come to the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law for him, that he is to be put to death, except those to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live: but I haven't been called to come in to the king these thirty days.¹² And they told to Mordecai Esther's words.¹³ Then Mordecai bade them return answer to Esther, Don't think within yourself that you shall escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.¹⁴ For if you altogether hold your peace at this time, then will relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish: and who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?¹⁵ Then Esther bade them return answer to Mordecai,¹⁶ Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast in like manner; and so I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.¹⁷ So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.