1. 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 even before the king's gate: for none might enter into the
king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

3. And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his
decree 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 chamberlains came and told it her. Then was
the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai,
and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not.

5. Then called Esther for Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom
he had appointed to attend upon her, and gave him a commandment to
Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was.

6. So Hatach went forth to Mordecai unto the street 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 shew it unto Esther, and to declare it
unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make