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: and he came even before the
king's gate: for none might enter within the king's gate clothed with
sackcloth. 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.
And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the
queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent her chamberlain to Mordecai
to know what this was, and why it was.
And Mordecai gave him a copy of the writing of the decree that was given
out in Shushan to destroy them, to show 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.
And he came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Then Esther gave him
a message unto Mordecai, saying: "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 for him, that he be put 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."
And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai bade them return
answer unto Esther, "Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in
the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether
holdest thy peace at this time, then shall relief and deliverance arise
to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father's house shall
perish: and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for
such a time as this?"
Then Esther bade them return answer unto Mordecai, "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 in like manner; and so will I go in unto the king, which is
not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish."
So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had
commanded him.
=Sec.95. Esther's Brave Intercession= (Esther 5:1-5; 7:2-6, 9, 10; 8:1-8,
9, 11, 15-17; 9:1, 2, 5, 20-23, 32)