Esther4
New Living Translation
1When Mordecai learned about all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on burlap and ashes, and went out into the city, crying with a loud and bitter wail.
2He went as far as the gate of the palace, for no one was allowed to enter the palace gate while wearing clothes of mourning.
3And as news of the king’s decree reached all the provinces, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and wailed, and many people lay in burlap and ashes.
4When Queen Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was deeply distressed. She sent clothing to him to replace the burlap, but he refused it.
5Then Esther sent for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs who had been appointed as her attendant. She ordered him to go to Mordecai and find out what was troubling him and why he was in mourning.
6So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the square in front of the palace gate.
7Mordecai told him the whole story, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews.
8Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the decree issued in Susa that called for the death of all Jews. He asked Hathach to show it to Esther and explain the situation to her. He also asked Hathach to direct her to go to the king to beg for mercy and plead for her people.
9So Hathach returned to Esther with Mordecai’s message.
10Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mordecai:
11“All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.”
12So Hathach gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.
13Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed.
14If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
15Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:
16“Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.”
17So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Esther 4.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The Jews lament their danger. (1–4). Esther undertakes to plead for the Jews. (5–17).
vv1-4
Mordecai avowed his relation to the Jews. Public calamities, that oppress the church of God, should affect our hearts more than any private affliction, and it is peculiarly distressing to occasion sufferings to others. God will keep those that are exposed to evil by the tenderness of their consciences.
vv5-17
We are prone to shrink from services that are attended with peril or loss. But when the cause of Christ and his people demand it, we must take up our cross, and follow him. When Christians are disposed to consult their own ease or safety, rather than the public good, they should be blamed. The law was express, all knew it. It is not thus in the court of the King of kings: to the footstool of his throne of grace we may always come boldly, and may be sure of an answer of peace to the prayer of faith. We are welcome, even into the holiest, through the blood of Jesus. Providence so ordered it, that, just then, the king's affections had cooled toward Esther; her faith and courage thereby were the more tried; and God's goodness in the favour she now found with the king, thereby shone the brighter. Haman no doubt did what he could to set the king against her. Mordecai suggests, that it was a cause which, one way or other, would certainly be carried, and which therefore she might safely venture in. This was the language of strong faith, which staggered not at the promise when the danger was most threatening, but against hope believed in hope. He that by sinful devices will save his life, and will not trust God with it in the way of duty, shall lose it in the way of sin. Divine Providence had regard to this matter, in bringing Esther to be queen. Therefore thou art bound in gratitude to do this service for God and his church, else thou dost not answer the end of thy being raised up. There is wise counsel and design in all the providences of God, which will prove that they are all intended for the good of the church. We should, every one, consider for what end God has put us in the place where we are, and study to answer that end: and take care that we do not let it slip. Having solemnly commended our souls and our cause to God, we may venture upon his service. All dangers are trifling compared with the danger of losing our souls. But the trembling sinner is often as much afraid of casting himself, without reserve, upon the Lord's free mercy, as Esther was of coming before the king. Let him venture, as she did, with earnest prayer and supplication, and he shall fare as well and better than she did. The cause of God must prevail: we are safe in being united to it.
Key Words
מׇרְדְּכַי: Mordecai, an Israelite
יָדַע: to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation, care, recognition; and causatively, instruction, designation, punishment, etc.)
כֹּל: properly, the whole; hence, all, any or every (in the singular only, but often in a plural sense)
עָשָׂה: to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application
קָרַע: to rend, literally or figuratively (revile, paint the eyes, as if enlarging them)
בֶּגֶד: a covering, i.e. clothing; also treachery or pillage
לָבַשׁ: properly, wrap around, i.e. (by implication) to put on agarment or clothe (oneself, or another), literally or figuratively
שַׂק: properly, a mesh (as allowing a liquid to run through), i.e. coarse loose cloth or sacking (used in mourning and for bagging); hence, a bag (for grain, etc.)
אֵפֶר: ashes
יָצָא: to go (causatively, bring) out, in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively, direct and proxim.
Cross References
Esther 4The execution of the law: the king holding out the golden sceptre to Esther.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Jacob's expression of resignation 'if I be bereaved, I am bereaved' parallels Esther's 'if I perish, I perish'.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Refers to the original decree published in Shushan which Mordecai gives in writing to Esther.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Esther's elevation to the kingdom, showing God's sovereign hand in raising her up for this crisis.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
A solemn public fast called for the assembly in a time of national destruction.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Esther appeals to the king mentioning the sum of money/destruction Mordecai warned her about.
Supported by Matthew Poole
The actual physical execution of holding out the golden sceptre to Esther.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Warning against failing to deliver those drawn unto death under the pretense of ignorance.
Supported by Matthew Henry
A fast with sackcloth and ashes, crying mightily to God to avert imminent destruction.
Supported by Matthew Henry
The ancient practice of tearing garments and putting on sackcloth in moments of extreme grief.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Sitting down among the ashes as a sign of absolute distress and humiliation.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Similar court custom where those in deep mourning could not directly approach the king.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Esther's hidden Jewish identity which she must now break silence on to save her people.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Subsequent institutionalization of these fasts and their cryings in Jewish tradition.
Supported by JFB