1: When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent
his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the
midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry; |
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2: And came even before the king's gate: for none might enter
into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth. |
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3:
And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment
and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and
fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
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4: So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her.
Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe
Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it
not. |
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5: Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains,
whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to
Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was. |
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6: So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street of the city,
which was before the king's gate. |
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7: And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and
of the sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's
treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them. |
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8: Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that
was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew it unto Esther, and to
declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the
king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him for
her people. |
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9: And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
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10: Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto
Mordecai; |
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11: All the king's servants, and the people of the king's
provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come
unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law
of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out
the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come
in unto the king these thirty days. |
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12: And they told to Mordecai Esther's words. |
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13: Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with
thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the
Jews. |
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14: For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then
shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another
place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who
knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
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15: Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,
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16: Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan,
and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day:
I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the
king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. |
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17: So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that
Esther had commanded him. |