Esther 4:4-14

4Esther's female servants the eunuchs who took care of her told her what Mordecai was doing. So Esther was very upset. She sent clothes for Mordecai to put on instead of the sackcloth, but Mordecai refused to wear them.

5Hathach was one of the king's eunuchs who served Esther. Esther asked him to discover what was the matter with Mordecai.

6So Hathach went to speak to Mordecai. Mordecai was outside the king's gate, in an open place.

7Mordecai told Hathach everything that had happened. He told Hathach how much money Haman would pay to the king when people destroyed all the Jews.

8Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the law that they had read aloud to the people in Susa. He told Hathach to show the law to Esther and explain it to her. Mordecai also said that Esther must go and speak to the king. She must ask the king to let her people live.

9Hathach went back into the palace. He told Esther what Mordecai had said.

10Then Esther sent Hathach back to Mordecai with this message:

11‘Everybody knows the law. People cannot go to meet the king in his own part of the palace unless the king asks them to come. All the king's officers and all his people know that that is the law. If somebody decides to go to the king when the king has not asked to see him, that person must die. He will only stay alive if the king holds out his gold sceptre towards him. As for me, the king has not asked me to go to him for the last 30 days.’

12When Mordecai heard this message from Esther,

13he sent this answer back to her: ‘Do not think that you will be safe because you live in the king's palace. You will not escape when they kill all the other Jews.

14You must speak now on behalf of all the Jewish people. If you do not, they will receive help from another place to make them safe and free. Then you and your father's family will come to an end. But I think that perhaps you have become queen so that you can help at a time like this.’