Esther 4-6

Jubilee Bible 2000

4 ¶ 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

² and came before the king’s gate; for no one was allowed to enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.

³ And in each province, wherever the king’s commandment and his law came, there was great mourning among the Jews and fasting and weeping and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ So Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her. Then the queen was grieved exceedingly, and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai and to take away his sackcloth from him; but he did not receive it.

⁵ ¶ Then Esther called for Hatach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and sent him to Mordecai, to know what it was and why it was.

⁶ So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the plaza of the city, which was before the king’s gate.

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.

⁸ Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to show 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.

⁹ And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

¹⁰ Again Esther spoke unto Hatach and sent him to say unto Mordecai,

¹¹ All the king’s slaves and the people of the king’s provinces do know that anyone, whether man or woman, who shall come unto the king into the inner court without being called, by one law shall be put to death, unless the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that they may live; but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.

¹² And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words.

¹³ Then Mordecai told them to answer Esther, Do not think in thy soul that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.

¹⁴ For if thou art silent at this time, then enlargement and deliverance shall arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed; and who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

¹⁵ Then Esther told them to return Mordecai this answer,

¹⁶ Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day; I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so I will go in unto the king, even though this is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.

¹⁷ So Mordecai went and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

5 ¶ Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house; and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.

² And it was so, when the king saw Esther, the queen, standing in the court, that she had grace in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched the top of the sceptre.

³ Then the king said unto her, What wilt thou, Queen Esther? And what is thy request? It shall be given thee, even to the half of the kingdom.

⁴ And Esther answered, If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.

⁵ Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste that he may do as Esther has said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

⁶ And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee. What is thy request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.

⁷ Then answered Esther and said, My petition and my request is:

⁸ If I have found grace in the sight of the king and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has commanded.

⁹ ¶ Then Haman went forth that day joyful and with a glad heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate and that he did not stand up nor move for him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai.

¹⁰ Nevertheless, Haman refrained himself, and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh, his wife.

¹¹ And Haman told them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his sons and all the things in which the king had promoted him and how he had advanced him above the princes and slaves of the king.

¹² Haman said, moreover, Even Esther, the queen, let no one come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself, and tomorrow I am also invited by her with the king.

¹³ Yet all this avails me nothing so long as I see Mordecai, the Jew, sitting at the king’s gate.

¹⁴ Then said Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows {Heb. stake} be made fifty cubits high, and tomorrow speak unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged upon it; then go in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman, and he caused the gallows to be made.

6 ¶ On that night the king could not sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king.

² And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the keepers of the door, who had sought to lay hand on King Ahasuerus.

³ And the king said, What honour and dignity has been done unto Mordecai for this? Then the king’s servants who ministered unto him answered, Nothing has been done for him.

⁴ ¶ And the king said, Who is in the court? Now Haman had come into the outward court of the king’s house to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

⁵ And the king’s servants said unto him, Behold, Haman stands in the court. And the king said, Let him come in.

⁶ So Haman came in. And the king said unto him, What shall be done unto the man whom the king delights to honour? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?

⁷ And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delights to honour,

⁸ let the royal apparel be brought which the king wears, and the horse that the king rides upon, and the royal crown which is set upon his head;

⁹ and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may clothe the man whom the king delights to honour and bring him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honour.

¹⁰ Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do so unto Mordecai, the Jew, that sits at the king’s gate; let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken.

¹¹ Then Haman took the apparel and the horse and clothed Mordecai and brought him on horseback through the plaza of the city and caused it to be proclaimed before him, Thus shall be done unto the man whom the king delights to honour.

¹² ¶ After that Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hastened to his house mourning and having his head covered.

¹³ And Haman told Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends all that had befallen him. Then his wise men and Zeresh, his wife, said unto him, If Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.

¹⁴ And while they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came in haste to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.