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 three 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, and 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 ^cWhen Jacob went into Egypt, and ^dthe Egyptians oppressed them,¹ then ^eyour fathers cried out to the Lord and ^fthe Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. 9 But they forgot the Lord their God. And he sold them ^ginto the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor,² and ^hinto the hand of the Philistines, and ⁱinto the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. 10 And ^jthey cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now ^kdeliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’