12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for ^wthree days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, ^xand if I perish, I perish.”¹

2 He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.

7 Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. 8 ^vWhen Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them,^{1 w}then your fathers cried out to the Lord and ^xthe Lord sent Moses and Aaron, ^ywho brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. 9 But ^zthey forgot the Lord their God. ^aAnd he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor,^{2 b}and into the hand of the Philistines, ^cand into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. 10 ^dAnd they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord ^eand have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now ^fdeliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’