King James Version › Esther › 4

Esther

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1 When Morde­cai per­ceived 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 came even be­fore the king's gate: for none might en­ter into the king's gate clothed with sack­cloth. 3 And in ev­ery province, whith­er­so­ev­er 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 So Esther's maids and her cham­ber­lains came and told it her. Then was the queen ex­ceed­ing­ly grieved; and she sent rai­ment to clothe Morde­cai, and to take away his sack­cloth from him: but he re­ceived it not. 5 Then called Es­ther for Hat­ach, one of the king's cham­ber­lains, whom he had ap­point­ed to at­tend upon her, and gave him a com­mand­ment to Morde­cai, to know what it was, and why it was. 6 So Hat­ach went forth to Morde­cai unto the street of the city, which was be­fore the king's gate. 7 And Morde­cai told him of all that had hap­pened unto him, and of the 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 at Shushan to de­stroy them, to shew it unto Es­ther, and to de­clare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make sup­pli­ca­tion unto him, and to make re­quest be­fore him for her peo­ple. 9 And Hat­ach came and told Es­ther the words of Morde­cai. 10 Again Es­ther spake unto Hat­ach, and gave him com­mand­ment unto Morde­cai; 11 All the king's ser­vants, and the peo­ple of the king's provinces, do know, that whoso­ev­er, whether man or wom­an, shall come unto the king into the in­ner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, ex­cept such to whom the king shall hold out the gold­en scep­tre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thir­ty days. 12 And they told to Morde­cai Esther's words. 13 Then Morde­cai com­mand­ed to an­swer Es­ther, Think not with thy­self that thou shalt es­cape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. 14 For if thou al­to­geth­er hold­est thy peace at this time, then shall there en­large­ment and de­liv­er­ance arise to the Jews from an­oth­er place; but thou and thy father's house shall be de­stroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the king­dom for such a time as this? 15 Then Es­ther bade them re­turn Morde­cai this answer, 16 Go, gath­er to­geth­er all the Jews that are pre­sent in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and nei­ther eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maid­ens will fast like­wise; and so will I go in unto 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.