4:1 When Mordechai (מרדּכי) perceived all that was done, Mordechai (מרדּכי) 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;
4:2 And came even before ha melekh's gate: for none [might] enter into ha melekh's gate clothed with sackcloth.
4:3 And in every province, whithersoever ha melekh's commandment and his decree came, [there was] great mourning among the Yehudim, and tzom (fasting), and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4:4 So Ester's maids and her chamberlains came and told [it] her. Then was ha malkah (מלכּה) exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordechai (מרדּכי), and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received [it] not.
4:5 Then called Ester for Hatach, [one] of ha melekh's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordechai (מרדּכי), to know what it [was], and why it [was].
4:6 So Hatach went forth to Mordechai (מרדּכי) to the street of the city, which [was] before ha melekh's gate.
4:7 And Mordechai (מרדּכי) told him of all that had happened to him, and of the sum of the money that Haman (המן) had promised to pay to ha melekh's treasuries for the Yehudim, to destroy them.
4:8 Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew [it] to Ester, and to declare [it] to her, and to charge her that she should go in to ha melekh, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him for her people.
4:9 And Hatach came and told Ester the words of Mordechai (מרדּכי).
4:10 Again Ester spoke to Hatach, and gave him commandment to Mordechai (מרדּכי);
4:11 All ha melekh's avadim, and the people of ha melekh's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come to ha melekh into the inner court, who is not called, [there is] one law of his to put [him] to death, except such to whom ha melekh shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in to ha melekh these thirty days.
4:12 And they told to Mordechai (מרדּכי) Ester's words.
4:13 Then Mordechai (מרדּכי) told them to answer Ester:
"Do not think in your heart that you will escape in ha melekh's palace any more than all the other Yehudim.
ki im-hakharesh takharishi baet hazot revakh vehatzalah yaamod laihudim mimakom akher veat uveit-avikh tovedu umi yodea im-leet kazot higaat lamalkhut:
For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Yehudim from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
4:15 Then Ester bade [them] return Mordechai (מרדּכי) [this answer],
Lekh kenos et-kol-haYehudim hanimtzeim beShushan vetzumu alai veal-tokhlu veal-tishtu sheloshet yamim lailah vayom gam-ani venaarotai atzum ken uvekhen avo el-hamelekh asher lo-khadat vekhaasher avadti avadti:
Go, gather together all the Yehudim 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 to ha melekh, which [is] not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
4:17 So Mordechai (מרדּכי) went his way, and did according to all that Ester had commanded him.
