11. “All the sovereign’s servants and the people of the sovereign’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the sovereign, who has not been called, he has but one law: to be put to death, except the one to whom the sovereign holds out the golden sceptre, who then shall live. But I have not been called to come in to the sovereign these thirty days.”
12. And they declared to Mordeḵai the words of Estĕr.
13. And Mordeḵai commanded them to answer Estĕr, “Do not think within yourself to escape in the sovereign’s palace any more than all the other Yehuḏim.
14. “For if you keep entirely silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Yehuḏim from another place, while you and your father’s house perish. And who knows whether you have come to the reign for such a time as this?”
15. And Estĕr commanded to reply to Mordeḵai,
16. “Go, gather all the Yehuḏim who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I too, and my young women shall fast in the same way, then I shall go to the sovereign, which is against the law. And if I shall perish, I shall perish!”
17. Mordeḵai then went away and did according to all that Estĕr commanded him.