41 When Mordecai learned what had been done, he ripped his clothes to shreds and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he went out in the streets of the city crying out in loud and bitter cries. 2 He came only as far as the King's Gate, for no one dressed in sackcloth was allowed to enter the King's Gate. 3 As the king's order was posted in every province, there was loud lament among the Jews - fasting, weeping, wailing. And most of them stretched out on sackcloth and ashes. 4 Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her. The queen was stunned. She sent fresh clothes to Mordecai so he could take off his sackcloth but he wouldn't accept them.
5 Esther called for Hathach, one of the royal eunuchs whom the king had assigned to wait on her, and told him to go to Mordecai and get the full story of what was happening. 6 So Hathach went to Mordecai in the town square in front of the King's Gate. 7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him. He also told him the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to deposit in the royal bank to finance the massacre of the Jews. 8 Mordecai also gave him a copy of the bulletin that had been posted in Susa ordering the massacre so he could show it to Esther when he reported back with instructions to go to the king and intercede and plead with him for her people. 9 Hathach came back and told Esther everything Mordecai had said. 10 Esther talked it over with Hathach and then sent him back to Mordecai with this message: 11 "Everyone who works for the king here, and even the people out in the provinces, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live. And it's been thirty days now since I've been invited to come to the king." 12 When Hathach told Mordecai what Esther had said, 13 Mordecai sent her this message: "Don't think that just because you live in the king's house you're the one Jew who will get out of this alive. 14 If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this." 15 Esther sent back her answer to Mordecai: 16 "Go and get all the Jews living in Susa together. Fast for me. Don't eat or drink for three days, either day or night. I and my maids will fast with you. If you will do this, I'll go to the king, even though it's forbidden. If I die, I die." 17 Mordecai left and carried out Esther's instructions.
51 Three days later Esther dressed in her royal robes and took up a position in the inner court of the palace in front of the king's throne room. The king was on his throne facing the entrance. 2 When he noticed Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased to see her; the king extended the gold scepter in his hand. Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter. 3 The king asked, "And what's your desire, Queen Esther? What do you want? Ask and it's yours - even if it's half my kingdom!" 4 "If it please the king," said Esther, "let the king come with Haman to a dinner I've prepared for him." 5 "Get Haman at once," said the king, "so we can go to dinner with Esther." 6 As they were drinking the wine, the king said, "Now, what is it you want? Half of my kingdom isn't too much to ask! Just ask." 7 Esther answered, "Here's what I want. 8 If the king favors me and is pleased to do what I desire and ask, let the king and Haman come again tomorrow to the dinner that I will fix for them. Then I'll give a straight answer to the king's question."
9 Haman left the palace that day happy, beaming. And then he saw Mordecai sitting at the King's Gate ignoring him, oblivious to him. Haman was furious with Mordecai. 10 But he held himself in and went on home. He got his friends together with his wife Zeresh 11 and started bragging about how much money he had, his many sons, all the times the king had honored him, and his promotion to the highest position in the government. 12 "On top of all that," Haman continued, "Queen Esther invited me to a private dinner she gave for the king, just the three of us. And she's invited me to another one tomorrow. 13 But I can't enjoy any of it when I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King's Gate." 14 His wife Zeresh and all his friends said, "Build a gallows seventy-five feet high. First thing in the morning speak with the king; get him to order Mordecai hanged on it. Then happily go with the king to dinner." Haman liked that. He had the gallows built.
61 That night the king couldn't sleep. He ordered the record book, the day-by-day journal of events, to be brought and read to him. 2 They came across the story there about the time that Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh - the two royal eunuchs who guarded the entrance and who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. 3 The king asked, "What great honor was given to Mordecai for this?" "Nothing," replied the king's servants who were in attendance. "Nothing has been done for him."
4 The king said, "Is there anybody out in the court?" Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king's palace to talk to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had built for him. 5 The king's servants said, "Haman is out there, waiting in the court." "Bring him in," said the king. 6 When Haman entered, the king said, "What would be appropriate for the man the king especially wants to honor?" 7 So he answered the king, "For the man the king delights to honor, do this: 8 Bring a royal robe that the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crown on its head. 9 Then give the robe and the horse to one of the king's most noble princes. Have him robe the man whom the king especially wants to honor; have the prince lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him, 'This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!'" 10 "Go and do it," the king said to Haman. "Don't waste another minute. Take the robe and horse and do what you have proposed to Mordecai the Jew who sits at the King's Gate. Don't leave out a single detail of your plan." 11 So Haman took the robe and horse; he robed Mordecai and led him through the city square, proclaiming before him, "This is what is done for the man whom the king especially wants to honor!"
12 Then Mordecai returned to the King's Gate, but Haman fled to his house, thoroughly mortified, hiding his face. 13 When Haman had finished telling his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him, his knowledgeable friends who were there and his wife Zeresh said, "If this Mordecai is in fact a Jew, your bad luck has only begun. You don't stand a chance against him - you're as good as ruined." 14 While they were still talking, the king's eunuchs arrived and hurried Haman off to the dinner that Esther had prepared.
