1 When Mordecai found out about those letters, he was so anguished that he tore his clothes and put on rough sackcloth and threw ashes over himself. Then he went into the city, crying very loudly. 2 He stood outside the gate of the palace, because no one who was wearing sackcloth was allowed to enter the palace. 3 In every province of the empire, when the letter from the king was read to the Jewish people, they cried and mourned. They ◄fasted/abstained from eating food►, and wailed loudly. Many of them also put on sackcloth and threw ashes on themselves and lay on the ground. 4 When Esther's maids and other officials came to her and told her what Mordecai had done, she was very distressed. So she sent to Mordecai some good clothes to wear instead of the sackcloth, but he refused to take them. 5 Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king's officials whom he had appointed to help take care of Esther. She told him to go out and talk to Mordecai to find out what was distressing him and why he was wearing sackcloth to show that he was grieving. 6 Hathach went to Mordecai, who was in the plaza in front of the palace gate. 7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened. He told him how much money Haman had promised to give to the government if the king commanded that all the Jews be killed. 8 Mordecai also gave to Hathach a copy of the decree that had been read in Susa, which said that all the Jews must be killed. He told Hathach to show the copy to Esther. He told Hathach to explain to Esther what ◄it meant/would happen►. Then he told him to urge her to go to the king and request the king to act mercifully to her people. 9 So Hathach returned to Esther and told her what Mordecai said. 10 Then Esther told Hathach to return to Mordecai and tell this to him: 11 “There is a law about people going to talk to the king. All the king's officials and all the people in the empire know this law. In that law it states that anyone who goes to the king when the king has not held out his gold scepter/staff toward him must be executed. Only those to whom the king has extended his scepter/staff will not be executed. And a month has passed since the king has held out his scepter/staff toward me, so I do not think he will let me talk to him now. (OR, what will happen to me if I try to see him and he doesn't want to see me?)” 12 So Hathach went back to Mordecai and told him what Esther had said. 13 Mordecai told Hathach to tell this to Esther: “Do not think that just because you live there in the palace, you will escape when all the other Jews are killed. 14 If you say nothing now, someone from some other place will rescue some of us Jews, but you and your relatives will be killed. Furthermore, ◄perhaps God/who knows if God► has put you here as queen ◄for a situation like this/to prevent this from happening to us►!” [RHQ] 15 Then after Hathach told this to Esther, she told him to return to Mordecai and say this to him: 16 “Gather together all the Jews here in Susa, and tell them to ◄fast/abstain from food► for my sake. Tell them to not eat or drink anything for three days and nights. My maids and I will also fast. Then, I will go to talk to the king. Even if ◄I am executed/they execute me► for disobeying the law by seeing him when he does not hold out the scepter/staff toward me, I am willing for that.” 17 So after Hathach told this to Mordecai, Mordecai went and did what Esther told him to do.