4 And Mordecai hath known all that hath been done, and Mordecai rendeth his garments, and putteth on sackcloth and ashes, and goeth forth into the midst of the city and crieth -- a cry loud and bitter,

² and he cometh in unto the front of the gate of the king, but none is to come in unto the gate of the king with a sackcloth-garment.

³ And in every province and province, the place where the word of the king, even his law, is coming, a great mourning have the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and lamenting: sackcloth and ashes are spread for many.

⁴ And young women of Esther come in and her eunuchs, and declare [it] to her, and the queen is exceedingly pained, and sendeth garments to clothe Mordecai, and to turn aside his sackcloth from off him, and he hath not received [them].

⁵ And Esther calleth to Hatach, of the eunuchs of the king, whom he hath stationed before her, and giveth him a charge for Mordecai, to know what this [is], and wherefore this [is].

⁶ And Hatach goeth out unto Mordecai, unto a broad place of the city, that [is] before the gate of the king,

⁷ and Mordecai declareth to him all that hath met him, and the explanation of the money that Haman said to weigh to the treasuries of the king for the Jews, to destroy them,

⁸ and the copy of the writing of the law that had been given in Shushan to destroy them he hath given to him, to shew Esther, and to declare [it] to her, and to lay a charge on her to go in unto the king, to make supplication to him, and to seek from before him, for her people.

⁹ And Hatach cometh in and declareth to Esther the words of Mordecai,

¹⁰ and Esther speaketh to Hatach, and chargeth him for Mordecai:

¹¹ `All servants of the king, and people of the provinces of the king, do know that any man and woman, who cometh in unto the king, unto the inner court, who is not called -- one law [of] his [is] to put [them] to death, apart from him to whom the king holdeth out the golden sceptre, then he hath lived; and I -- I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.'

¹² And they declare to Mordecai the words of Esther,

¹³ and Mordecai speaketh to send back unto Esther: `Do not think in thy soul to be delivered [in] the house of the king, more than all the Jews,

¹⁴ but if thou keep entirely silent at this time, respite and deliverance remaineth to the Jews from another place, and thou and the house of thy fathers are destroyed; and who knoweth whether for a time like this thou hast come to the kingdom?'

¹⁵ And Esther speaketh to send back unto Mordecai:

¹⁶ `Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat nor drink three days, by night and by day; also I and my young women do fast likewise, and so I go in unto the king, that [is] not according to law, and when I have perished -- I have perished.'

¹⁷ And Mordecai passeth on, and doth according to all that Esther hath charged upon him.

5 And it cometh to pass on the third day, that Esther putteth on royalty, and standeth in the inner-court of the house of the king over-against the house of the king, and the king is sitting on his royal throne, in the royal-house, over-against the opening of the house,

² and it cometh to pass, at the king's seeing Esther the queen standing in the court, she hath received grace in his eyes, and the king holdeth out to Esther the golden sceptre that [is] in his hand, and Esther draweth near, and toucheth the top of the sceptre.

³ And the king saith to her, `What -- to thee Esther, O queen? and what thy request? unto the half of the kingdom -- and it is given to thee.'

⁴ And Esther saith, `If unto the king [it be] good, the king doth come in, and Haman, to-day, unto the banquet that I have made for him;'

⁵ and the king saith, `Haste ye Haman -- to do the word of Esther;' and the king cometh in, and Haman, unto the banquet that Esther hath made.

⁶ And the king saith to Esther, during the banquet of wine, `What [is] thy petition? and it is given to thee; and what thy request? unto the half of the kingdom -- and it is done.'

⁷ And Esther answereth and saith, `My petition and my request [is]:

⁸ if I have found grace in the eyes of the king, and if unto the king [it be] good, to give my petition, and to perform my request, the king doth come, and Haman, unto the banquet that I make for them, and to-morrow I do according to the word of the king.'

⁹ And Haman goeth forth on that day rejoicing and glad in heart, and at Haman's seeing Mordecai in the gate of the king, and he hath not risen nor moved for him, then is Haman full of fury against Mordecai.

¹⁰ And Haman forceth himself, and cometh in unto his house, and sendeth, and bringeth in his friends, and Zeresh his wife,

¹¹ and Haman recounteth to them the glory of his wealth, and the abundance of his sons, and all that with which the king made him great, and with which he lifted him up above the heads and servants of the king.

¹² And Haman saith, `Yea, Esther the queen brought none in with the king, unto the feast that she made, except myself, and also for to-morrow I am called to her, with the king,

¹³ and all this is not profitable to me, during all the time that I am seeing Mordecai the Jew sitting in the gate of the king.'

¹⁴ And Zeresh his wife saith to him, and all his friends, `Let them prepare a tree, in height fifty cubits, and in the morning speak to the king, and they hang Mordecai on it, and go thou in with the king unto the banquet rejoicing;' and the thing is good before Haman, and he prepareth the tree.

6 On that night hath the sleep of the king fled away, and he saith to bring in the book of memorials of the Chronicles, and they are read before the king,

² and it is found written that Mordecai had declared concerning Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs of the king, of the keepers of the threshold, who sought to put forth a hand on king Ahasuerus.

³ And the king saith, `What honour and greatness hath been done to Mordecai for this?' And the servants of the king, his ministers, say, `Nothing hath been done with him.'

⁴ And the king saith, `Who [is] in the court?' -- and Haman hath come in to the outer court of the house of the king, to say to the king to hang Mordecai on the tree that he had prepared for him --

⁵ and the servants of the king say unto him, `Lo, Haman is standing in the court;' and the king saith, `Let him come in.'

⁶ And Haman cometh in, and the king saith to him, `What -- to do with the man in whose honour the king hath delighted?' And Haman saith in his heart, `To whom doth the king delight to do honour more than myself?'

⁷ And Haman saith unto the king, `The man in whose honour the king hath delighted,

⁸ let them bring in royal clothing that the king hath put on himself, and a horse on which the king hath ridden, and that the royal crown be put on his head,

⁹ and to give the clothing and the horse into the hand of a man of the heads of the king, the chiefs, and they have clothed the man in whose honour the king hath delighted, and caused him to ride on the horse in a broad place of the city, and called before him: Thus it is done to the man in whose honour the king hath delighted.'

¹⁰ And the king saith to Haman, `Haste, take the clothing and the horse, as thou hast spoken, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting in the gate of the king; there doth not fall a thing of all that thou hast spoken.'

¹¹ And Haman taketh the clothing, and the horse, and clothed Mordecai, and causeth him to ride in a broad place of the city, and calleth before him, `Thus it is done to the man in whose honour the king hath delighted.'

¹² And Mordecai turneth back unto the gate of the king, and Haman hath been hastened unto his house mourning, and with covered head,

¹³ and Haman recounteth to Zeresh his wife, and to all his friends, all that hath met him, and his wise men say to him, and Zeresh his wife, `If Mordecai [is] of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou art not able for him, but dost certainly fall before him.'

¹⁴ They are yet speaking with him, and eunuchs of the king have come, and haste to bring in Haman unto the banquet that Esther hath made.

7 And the king cometh in, and Haman, to drink with Esther the queen,

² and the king saith to Esther also on the second day, during the banquet of wine, `What [is] thy petition, Esther, O queen? and it is given to thee; and what thy request? unto the half of the kingdom -- and it is done.'

³ And Esther the queen answereth and saith, `If I have found grace in thine eyes, O king, and if to the king [it be] good, let my life be given to me at my petition, and my people at my request;

⁴ for we have been sold, I and my people, to cut off, to slay, and to destroy; and if for men-servants and for maid-servants we had been sold I had kept silent -- but the adversity is not equal to the loss of the king.'

⁵ And the king Ahasuerus saith, yea, he saith to Esther the queen, `Who [is] he -- this one? and where [is] this one? -- he whose heart hath filled him to do so?'

⁶ And Esther saith, `The man -- adversary and enemy -- [is] this wicked Haman;' and Haman hath been afraid at the presence of the king and of the queen.

⁷ And the king hath risen, in his fury, from the banquet of wine, unto the garden of the house, and Haman hath remained to seek for his life from Esther the queen, for he hath seen that evil hath been determined against him by the king.

⁸ And the king hath turned back out of the garden of the house unto the house of the banquet of wine, and Haman is falling on the couch on which Esther [is], and the king saith, `Also to subdue the queen with me in the house?' the word hath gone out from the mouth of the king, and the face of Haman they have covered.

⁹ And Harbonah, one of the eunuchs, saith before the king, `Also lo, the tree that Haman made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king, is standing in the house of Haman, in height fifty cubits;' and the king saith, `Hang him upon it.'

¹⁰ And they hang Haman upon the tree that he had prepared for Mordecai, and the fury of the king hath lain down.