Mordecai Seeks Esther’s Help

4 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his garments and clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes. He went into the middle of the city and cried out with a loud and bitter cry. ² He came as far as^[a] the front of the king’s gate, because no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. ³ In every province where the order of the king and his edict reached, among the Jewish people there was great mourning, fasting, weeping, and lamenting, and many lay down on sackcloth and ashes.