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Esther 4

Esther moves from reporting the danger of approaching the king to accepting that danger on behalf of her threatened people.

Mordecai mourns in sackcloth outside the king’s gate as a royal decree threatens the destruction of the Jews throughout the empire. Inside the palace, Esther learns the details through Hathach, a royal attendant. Mordecai urges her to plead with the king for her people. Esther explains that approaching him without a summons could mean death. After Mordecai challenges her hope of safety in the palace, she asks the Jews in Susa to fast before she goes.

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1Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and wailed loudly and bitterly.
3In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth, but he didn’t receive it.
5Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was.
6So Hathach went out to Mordecai, to the city square which was before the king’s gate.
8He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Susa to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king to make supplication to him, and to make request before him for her people.
11“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”
13Then Mordecai asked them to return this answer to Esther: “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews.
14For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Esther 4:1Mordecai’s public mourning brings the threat against the Jews to the palace’s attention and sets the exchange with Esther in motion.
Esther 4:11Esther explains the court law that makes Mordecai’s request dangerous, even for the queen.
Esther 4:16Esther asks her people to fast and commits to approaching the king with no assurance that she will survive.
Where this chapter reaches

Genesis shares Esther’s use of torn clothes and sackcloth as signs of mourning, while Acts also depicts fasting before consequential action. Proverbs shares the concern for speaking on behalf of people threatened with death, a concern at the heart of Mordecai’s appeal to Esther.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What do you notice about Esther’s response before and after Mordecai challenges her hope of safety?

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How does Esther’s request for a shared fast shape your understanding of her decision to act?

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Questions people ask about Esther 4

What does “for such a time as this” mean in Esther 4:14?

Mordecai asks whether Esther’s royal position has placed her where she can help her threatened people. His question leaves the purpose of her rise unstated as a certainty. He expresses confidence that deliverance will come, while warning that her place in the palace does not guarantee her safety.

Why could Esther be killed for approaching the king?

Esther describes a court law requiring death for anyone who enters the king’s inner court without being summoned. The king can spare that person by extending his golden scepter. Esther has received no summons for thirty days, so her position as queen gives her no assured protection under this law.

Does Esther 4 mention God or prayer?

Neither God nor prayer is named in this chapter. Esther asks the Jews in Susa to abstain from food and drink for three days, and she and her maidens will do the same. Mordecai’s confidence in deliverance and his question about her position suggest providence without naming its source.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).