1And Mordecai knew all that was done, and Mordecai tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried out a great and bitter cry;
2and he came up to before the king's gate; for none might enter into the king's gate clothed in sackcloth.
3And in every province and province, the place where the king's word and his decree (dat) reached, there was great mourning for the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; sackcloth and ashes were spread out for the many.
4And the maidens of Esther and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was exceedingly pained; and she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to remove his sackcloth from upon him, but he did not accept.
5And Esther called for Hathach, of the king's eunuchs whom he had set before her, and commanded him (tzivvah) concerning Mordecai, to know what this was and why this was.
6And Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the broad place of the city which was before the king's gate.
7And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the silver that Haman had said to weigh out into the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.
8And the copy of the writing of the decree (dat) that was given in Shushan to destroy them he gave to him, to show Esther and to tell her, and to command (tzivvah) her to go in to the king, to make supplication to him and to make request before him for her people.
9And Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10And Esther said to Hathach, and commanded him (tzivvah) to Mordecai:
11All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man (ish) or woman (ishah) who comes to the king, into the inner court, who is not called, there is one decree of his (dat): to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live; but I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.
12And they told Mordecai the words of Esther.
13And Mordecai said to return answer to Esther: Do not imagine in your soul (nephesh) to escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.
14For if you altogether keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish; and who knows whether for a time such as this you have come to the kingdom?
15And Esther said to return answer to Mordecai:
16Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat and do not drink three days, night and day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so I will go in to the king, which is not according to the decree (dat); and if I perish, I perish.
17And Mordecai passed over and did according to all that Esther had commanded (tzivvah) him.