Esther

¹But Mordecai, having perceived what was done, tore his garments, put on sackcloth, and sprinkled dust upon himself. Having rushed forth through the open street of the city, he cried with a loud voice, “A nation that has done no wrong is going to be destroyed!” ²He came to the king’s gate, and stood; for it was not lawful for him to enter into the palace wearing sackcloth and ashes. ³And in every province where the letters were published, there was crying, lamentation, and great mourning on the part of the Jews. They wore sackcloth and ashes. ⁴The queen’s maids and chamberlains went in and told her; and when she had heard what was done, she was deeply troubled. She sent clothes to Mordecai to replace his sackcloth, but he refused. ⁵So Esther called for her chamberlain Hathach, who waited upon her; and she sent to learn the truth from Mordecai. ⁷Mordecai showed him what was done, and the promise which Haman had made the king of ten thousand talents to be paid into the treasury, that he might destroy the Jews. ⁸And he gave him the copy of what was published in Susa concerning their destruction to show to Esther; and told him to charge her to go in and entreat the king, and to beg him for the people. “Remember, he said, the days of your humble condition, how you were nursed by my hand; because Haman, who holds the next place to the king, has spoken against us to cause our death. Call upon the Lord, and speak to the king concerning us, to deliver us from death.” ⁹So Hathach went in and told her all these words. ¹⁰Esther said to Hathach, “Go to Mordecai, and say, ¹¹‘All the nations of the empire know that any man or woman who goes in to the king into the inner court without being called, that person must die, unless the king stretches out his golden sceptre; then he shall live. I haven’t been called to go into the king for thirty days.’” ¹²So Hathach reported to Mordecai all the words of Esther. ¹³Then Mordecai said to Hathach, “Go, and say to her, ‘Esther, don’t say to yourself that you alone will escape in the kingdom, more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴For if you keep quiet on this occasion, help and protection will come to the Jews from another place; but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you have been made queen for this occasion?’” ¹⁵And Esther sent the messenger who came to her to Mordecai, saying, ¹⁶“Go and assemble the Jews that are in Susa, and all of you fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, night and day. My maidens and I will also fast. Then I will go in to the king contrary to the law, even if I must die.”

¹⁷So Mordecai went and did all that Esther commanded him. ¹⁸[He prayed to the Lord, making mention of all the works of the Lord. ¹⁹He said, “Lord God, you are king ruling over all, for all things are in your power, and there is no one who can oppose you in your purpose to save Israel; ²⁰for you have made the sky and the earth and every wonderful thing under the sky. ²¹You are Lord of all, and there is no one who can resist you, Lord. ²²You know all things. You know, Lord, that it is not in insolence, nor arrogance, nor love of glory, that I have done this, to refuse to bow down to the arrogant Haman. ²³For I would gladly have kissed the soles of his feet for the safety of Israel. ²⁴But I have done this that I might not set the glory of man above the glory of God. I will not worship anyone except you, my Lord, and I will not do these things in arrogance. ²⁵And now, O Lord God, the King, the God of Abraham, spare your people, for our enemies are planning our destruction, and they have desired to destroy your ancient inheritance. ²⁶Do not overlook your people, whom you have redeemed for yourself out of the land of Egypt. ²⁷Listen to my prayer. Have mercy on your inheritance and turn our mourning into gladness, that we may live and sing praise to your name, O Lord. Don’t utterly destroy the mouth of those who praise you, O Lord.” ²⁸All Israel cried with all their might, for death was before their eyes. ²⁹And queen Esther took refuge in the Lord, being taken as it were in the agony of death. ³⁰Having taken off her glorious apparel, she put on garments of distress and mourning. Instead of grand perfumes she filled her head with ashes and dung. She greatly humbled her body, and she filled every place of her glad adorning with her tangled hair. ³¹She implored the Lord God of Israel, and said, “O my Lord, you alone are our king. Help me. I am destitute, and have no helper but you, ³²for my danger is near at hand. ³³I have heard from my birth in the tribe of my kindred that you, Lord, took Israel out of all the nations, and our fathers out of all their kindred for a perpetual inheritance, and have done for them all that you have said. ³⁴And now we have sinned before you, and you have delivered us into the hands of our enemies, ³⁵because we honored their gods. You are righteous, O Lord. ³⁶But now they have not been content with the bitterness of our slavery, but have laid their hands on the hands of their idols ³⁷to abolish the decree of your mouth, and utterly to destroy your inheritance, and to stop the mouth of those who praise you, and to extinguish the glory of your house and your altar, ³⁸and to open the mouth of the Gentiles to speak the praises of vanities, and that a mortal king should be admired forever. ³⁹O Lord, don’t surrender your sceptre to those who don’t exist, and don’t let them laugh at our fall, but turn their counsel against themselves, and make an example of him who has begun to injure us. ⁴⁰Remember us, O Lord! Manifest yourself in the time of our affliction. Encourage me, O King of gods, and ruler of all dominion! ⁴¹Put harmonious speech into my mouth before the lion, and turn his heart to hate him who fights against us, to the utter destruction of those who agree with him. ⁴²But deliver us by your hand, and help me who am alone and have no one but you, O Lord. ⁴³You know all things, and know that I hate the glory of transgressors, and that I abhor the bed of the uncircumcised and of every stranger. ⁴⁴You know my necessity, for I abhor the symbol of my proud station, which is upon my head in the days of my splendor. I abhor it as a menstruous cloth, and I don’t wear it in the days of my tranquility. ⁴⁵Your handmaid has not eaten at Haman’s table, and I have not honored the banquet of the king, neither have I drunk wine of libations. ⁴⁶Neither has your handmaid rejoiced since the day of my promotion until now, except in you, O Lord God of Abraham. ⁴⁷O god, who has power over all, listen to the voice of the desperate, and deliver us from the hand of those who devise mischief. Deliver me from my fear.]