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1 When Mordecai found out about all that was done, he tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midle of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
2 He came up to the king's gate: for no one was allowed to enter into 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 So Esther's maids and her eunuchs came and told her about it. Then the queen was extremely grieved; and she sent clothing to clothe Mordecai, and to replace his sackcloth: but he did not take it.
5 Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's eunuchs, whom he had appointed to wait on her, and told him to go and find out what was the matter with Mordecai and why.
6 So Hatach went out to Mordecai to the main square of the city that was before the king's gate.
7 And Mordecai told him about all that had happened to him, and of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
8 He also gave him a copy of the text of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to show to Esther, and to explain it to her, and to tell her that she should go in to the king, to appeal to him, and to petition him on behalf of her people.
9 Then Hatach came back and told Esther what Mordecai had said.
10 Again Esther spoke to Hatach, and told him to tell Mordecai;
11 All the servants of the King and the people in the king's provinces know, that if any man or woman comes to the king in the inner court, who has not been summoned, there is a specific law to put him to death. The only exception is when the king holds out his golden scepter to let the person live. But I have not been invited to come to the king for the past thirty days.
12 And they told to Mordecai Esther's words.
13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with yourself that you will escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.
14 For if you altogether hold your peace at this time, [then] will there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but you and your father's house will be destroyed: and who knows whether you are 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 you 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 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.