³ Now in each and every province where the word and law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with ^(A)fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many made their bed in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ Then Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen writhed in great anguish. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to remove his sackcloth from upon him, but he did not accept them. ⁵ Then Esther summoned Hathach from the king’s eunuchs, whom ^[a]the king had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai to know what this was and why it was.