Esther 4:9-17

9 Hatakh returned and told Ester what Mordekhai had said.
10 Then Ester spoke to Hatakh and gave him this message for Mordekhai:
11 "All the king's officials, as well as the people in the royal provinces, know that if anyone, man or woman, approaches the king in the inner courtyard without being summoned, there is just one law - he must be put to death - unless the king holds out the gold scepter for him to remain alive; and I haven't been summoned to the king for the past thirty days."
12 Upon being told what Ester had said, Mordekhai
13 asked them to give Ester this answer: "Don't suppose that merely because you happen to be in the royal palace you will escape any more than the other Jews.
14 For if you fail to speak up now, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from a different direction; but you and your father's family will perish. Who knows whether you didn't come into your royal position precisely for such a time as this."
15 Ester had them return this answer to Mordekhai:
16 "Go, assemble all the Jews to be found in Shushan, and have them fast for me, neither eating nor drinking for three days, night and day; also I and the girls attending me will fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish."
17 Then Mordekhai went his way and did everything Ester had ordered him to do.

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Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.