Esther 4:1-3

Christian Standard Bible

Mordecai Appeals to Esther

4 When Mordecai learned all that had occurred,^(A) he tore his clothes,^(B) put on sackcloth and ashes,^(C) went into the middle of the city, and cried loudly and bitterly.^{(D) 2} He went only as far as the King’s Gate,^(E) since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the King’s Gate. ³ There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edict^(F) reached. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.^(G)