Esther Agrees to Help the Jews

4 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes and went through the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry;^{(A) 2} he went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. ³ In every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.^(B)

⁴ When Esther’s maids 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. ⁵ 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 was happening and why. ⁶ Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate, ⁷ 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.^{(C) 8} Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and to entreat him for her people.^(D)

⁹ Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰ Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai: ¹¹ “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. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone may that person live. I myself have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days.”^{(E) 12} When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, ¹³ Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴ 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 family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” ¹⁵ Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai, ¹⁶ “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”^{(F) 17} Mordecai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

Esther’s Banquet

5 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the palace.^{(G) 2} As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won his favor, and he held out to her the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter.^{(H) 3} The king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be given you.”^{(I) 4} Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet that I have prepared for the king.” ⁵ Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that we may do as Esther desires.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.^{(J) 6} While they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”^{(K) 7} Then Esther answered, “This is my petition and request: ⁸ If I have won the king’s favor, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and then I will do as the king has said.”^(L)

Haman Plans to Have Mordecai Hung

⁹ Haman went out that day happy and in good spirits, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate and observed that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was infuriated with Mordecai;^{(M) 10} nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Then he sent and called for his friends and his wife Zeresh,^{(N) 11} and Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and the ministers of the king.^{(O) 12} Haman added, “Even Queen Esther let no one but myself come with the king to the banquet that she prepared. Tomorrow also I am invited by her, together with the king.^{(P) 13} Yet all this does me no good so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”^{(Q) 14} Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a pole fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mordecai hung on it; then go with the king to the banquet in good spirits.” This advice pleased Haman, and he had the pole made.^(R)

The King Honors Mordecai

6 On that night the king could not sleep, and he gave orders to bring the book of records, the annals, and they were read to the king.^{(S) 2} It was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the threshold and who had conspired to kill^[a] King Ahasuerus.^{(T) 3} Then the king said, “What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” The king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” ⁴ The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mordecai hung on the pole that he had prepared for him.^{(U) 5} So the king’s servants told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” The king said, “Let him come in.” ⁶ So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?”^{(V) 7} So Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king wishes to honor, ⁸ let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and a horse that the king has ridden, with a royal crown on its head.^{(W) 9} Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials; let him^[b] robe the man whom the king wishes to honor, and let him^[c] conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.’ ”^{(X) 10} Then the king said to Haman, “Quickly, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.” ¹¹ So Haman took the robes and the horse and robed Mordecai and led him riding through the open square of the city, proclaiming, “Thus shall it be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor.”

¹² Then Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered.^{(Y) 13} When Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom your downfall has begun, is of the Jewish people, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.”^(Z)

Haman’s Downfall and Mordecai’s Advancement

¹⁴ While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the banquet that Esther had prepared.^(AA)