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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Esther 4 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/esther/4.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/esther/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">ESV</a> > Esther 4</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../esther/3.htm" title="Esther 3">◄</a> Esther 4 <a href="../esther/5.htm" title="Esther 5">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/esther/4.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">Esther Agrees to Help the Jews</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>When 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>And 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.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>When 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>Then 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>and 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or annihilation">a</a></sup></span> 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<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew and seek from before his face">b</a></sup></span> on behalf of her people. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>And Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>Then Esther spoke to Hathach and commanded him to go to Mordecai and say, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>“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.”</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Then 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>For 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?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>“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.”<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew if I am destroyed, then I will be destroyed">c</a></sup></span> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/esther/4-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">8</span> Or <i>annihilation</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">8</span> Hebrew <i>and seek from before his face</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">16</span> Hebrew <i>if I am destroyed, then I will be destroyed</i><br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 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