1 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes ^oand put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry.

3 And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, ^pwith fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them ^qlay in sackcloth and ashes.

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