Esther Agrees to Help the Jews
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When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes o and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry.
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He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth.
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And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, p with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them q lay in sackcloth and ashes.
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When Esther's young women and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.
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Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.
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Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate,
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and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, r and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
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Mordecai also gave him s a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and command her to go to the king to beg his favor and plead with him on behalf of her people.
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And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said.
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Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say,
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"All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside t the inner court without being called, u there is but one law - to be put to death, except the one v to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days."
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And they told Mordecai what Esther had said.
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Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.
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For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
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Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
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"Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for w three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, x and if I perish, I perish."
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Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
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Cross References
2 Samuel 3:31
Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, "Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and mourn before Abner." And King David followed the bier.
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Cross References
Esther 4:16
"Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish."
Esther 9:31
That these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther obligated them, and as they had obligated themselves and their offspring, with regard to their fasts and their lamenting.
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Cross References
Daniel 9:3
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Isaiah 58:5
Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord ?
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Cross References
Esther 3:9
If it please the king, let it be decreed that they be destroyed, and I will pay 10,000 talents of silver into the hands of those who have charge of the king's business, that they may put it into the king's treasuries.
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Cross References
Esther 3:14
A copy of the document was to be issued as a decree in every province by proclamation to all the peoples to be ready for that day.
Esther 8:13
A copy of what was written was to be issued as a decree in every province, being publicly displayed to all peoples, and the Jews were to be ready on that day to take vengeance on their enemies.
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Cross References
Esther 5:1
On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, in front of the king's quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace.
Esther 6:4
And the king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king's palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
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Cross References
Daniel 2:9
If you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.
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Cross References
Esther 5:2
And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.
Esther 8:4
When the king held out the golden scepter to Esther.
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Cross References
Esther 5:1
On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, in front of the king's quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace.
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Cross References
Genesis 43:14
May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.