When Mordecai learned of all that had
been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into
the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. 2 But he went only as
far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to
enter it. 3 In every province to which the edict and order of
the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping
and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4 When
Esther’s eunuchs and female attendants came and told her about Mordecai, she
was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his
sackcloth, but he would not accept them. 5 Then Esther summoned
Hathak, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to
find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.
6 So
Hathak went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the
king’s gate. 7 Mordecai told him everything that had happened
to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the
royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. 8 He also gave
him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been
published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to
instruct her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him
for her people.
9 Hathak
went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. 10 Then
she instructed him to say to Mordecai, 11 “All the king’s
officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman
who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has
but one law: that they be put to death unless the king extends the gold scepter
to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called
to go to the king.”
12 When
Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he sent back this
answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all
the Jews will escape. 14 For if you remain silent at this time,
relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and
your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your
royal position for such a time as this?”
15 Then
Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16 “Go, gather together all
the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days,
night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I
will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I
perish.”
17 So
Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the
godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their
wickedness,19 since what may be known about God is plain to
them, because God has made it plain to them.20 For since the creation of the world God’s
invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen,
being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor
gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts
were darkened.22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became
fools23 and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal
human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts
to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.25 They
exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created
things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their
women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.27 In the
same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed
with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and
received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the
knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do
what ought not to be done.29 They have become filled
with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of
envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,30 slanderers, God-haters,
insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their
parents;31 they
have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.32 Although they know God’s
righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only
continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
