1 ¶ When Mordecai learned of all that was done, he tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried loud and bitterly;

2 And even went to the king’s gate: but no one could go through it clothed with sackcloth.

3 And in every province, where the king’s commandment and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4 When Esther’s maids and chamberlains came and told her, the queen was greatly distressed; and she sent garments to clothe Mordecai, meaning to take his sackcloth away from him: but he would not take them.

5 ¶ Then Esther summoned Hatach, one of the chamberlains, whom the king had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai, to find out what it meant, and why he was doing this.

6 So Hatach went out to Mordecai in the city street, that ran in front of the king’s gate.

7 And Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and of the amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews to be destroyed.

8 Also he gave him the copy of the written decree to destroy them that was issued at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and instruct her to go in to the king, implore his favor, and plead with him for her people.

9 And Hatach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said.

10 Then Esther spoke to Hatach, and gave him a message for Mordecai;

11 All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, know, that if anyone, whether man or woman, goes in to the king in the inner court, without being called, the only verdict for him is to be put to death, unless the king holds out to him the golden scepter, to let him live: but I have not been called to come to the king for thirty days.

12 And they told Mordecai what Esther said.

13 Then Mordecai told them to give Esther this reply, Do not think that you of all the Jews will escape in the king’s palace.

14 For if you keep silent at this time, then relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from another place; but you and your father’s house will be destroyed: and who knows perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

15 Then Esther told them to give Mordecai this answer,

16 Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat or drink for three days, night and day: I and my maids will also fast; then I will go in to the king, though it is against the law: and if I die, I die.

17 So Mordecai went his way, and did just as Esther had told him.