Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 161
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that all Jews—young and old, including women and children—must be
killed, slaughtered, and annihilated on a single day. This was scheduled to
happen on March 7 of the next year. The property of the Jews would be
given to those who killed them.
A copy of this decree was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that they would be ready to do their duty on
the appointed day. At the king’s command, the decree went out by swift
messengers, and it was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa. Then the
king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa fell into confusion.
When Mordecai learned about all that had been done, he tore his clothes,
put on burlap and ashes, and went out into the city, crying with a loud and
bitter wail. He went as far as the gate of the palace, for no one was allowed
to enter the palace gate while wearing clothes of mourning. And as news
of the king’s decree reached all the provinces, there was great mourning
among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and wailed, and many people lay in
burlap and ashes.
When Queen Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mor
decai, she was deeply distressed. She sent clothing to him to replace the
burlap, but he refused it. Then Esther sent for Hathach, one of the king’s
eunuchs who had been appointed as her attendant. She ordered him to
go to Mordecai and find out what was troubling him and why he was in
mourning. So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the square in front of the
palace gate.
Mordecai told him the whole story, including the exact amount of
money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the decree issued
in Susa that called for the death of all Jews. He asked Hathach to show it
to Esther and explain the situation to her. He also asked Hathach to direct
her to go to the king to beg for mercy and plead for her people. So Hathach
returned to Esther with Mordecai’s message.
Then Esther told Hathach to go back and relay this message to Mor
decai: “All the king’s officials and even the people in the provinces know
that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being
invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his gold scepter. And
the king has not called for me to come to him for thirty days.” So Hathach
gave Esther’s message to Mordecai.
Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed.
If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews
will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who
knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
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