1. Mordecai learned all that had been done and he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. And he went through the middle of the city and cried out a loud and bitter cry;
2. he went up to the entrance of the gate of the king, for he could not go to the gate of the king in sackcloth.
3. In every province each place where the king’s edict and his law came, there was great mourning for the Jews with fasting, crying, wailing, and sackcloth; and ashes were spread out as a bed for them.
4. And Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and they told her, and the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might remove his sackcloth—but he did not accept them.
5. Then Esther called Hathach from the king’s eunuchs who regularly attended to her, and she ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why.
6. So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the public square of the city, which was in front of the gate of the king,