Esther 4:1-8

1And when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his garments, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry,

2and came even before the king's gate; for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

3And 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: many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4And Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told [it] her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him; but he received [it] not.

5Then Esther called for Hatach, [one] of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to wait upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was.

6And Hatach went forth to Mordecai, unto the public place of the city which was before the king's gate.

7And Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and of the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.

8And he gave him a copy of the writing of the decree that had been given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew [it] to Esther, and to declare [it] to her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people.