Esther 4 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Esther Agrees to Help the Jews

Est 4:1When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes 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.

Est 4:2

Est 4:2He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.

Est 4:3

Est 4:3And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Est 4:4

Est 4:4When 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.

Est 4:5

Est 4:5Then 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.

Est 4:6

Est 4:6Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate,

Est 4:7

Est 4:7and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.

Est 4:8

Est 4:8Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction,[fn] 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[fn] on behalf of her people.

Est 4:9

Est 4:9And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said.

Est 4:10

Est 4:10Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say,

Est 4:11

Est 4:11“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 the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one 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.”

Est 4:12

Est 4:12And they told Mordecai what Esther had said.

Est 4:13

Est 4:13Then 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.

Est 4:14

Est 4:14For 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?”

Est 4:15

Est 4:15Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,

Est 4:16

Est 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.”[fn]

Est 4:17

Est 4:17Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

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ESV Footnotes

(4:8)

Or annihilation

(4:8)

Hebrew and seek from before his face

(4:16)

Hebrew if I am destroyed, then I will be destroyed

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Esther Chapter 4 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras

Esther 4 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Esther Agrees to Help the Jews

ESV Footnotes

Esther Chapter 4 — Additional Translations:

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