Esther 4:1-8

1When Mordecai learned all that was done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city crying out in a loud and bitter voice.

2He went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one could enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.

3In each and every province where the king’s edict and law came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many put on sackcloth and ashes.

4When Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her, the queen was greatly distressed. She sent clothes for Mordecai to put on so he would remove his sackcloth, but he refused.

5So Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to find the cause and reason for this.

6So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the king’s gate.

7Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, even the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.

8He also gave him a written copy of the decree, which had been distributed in Shushan, for their annihilation, to show to Esther and to explain it to her. He instructed her to go in to the king, to beg his favor and plead before him on behalf of her people.