Mordecai Persuades Esther to Help

4 When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes,^(A) put on sackcloth and ashes,^(B) and went out into the city, wailing^(C) loudly and bitterly. ² But he went only as far as the king’s gate,^(D) because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. ³ In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁸ Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.^(A)

¹³ Then they sat on the ground^(A) with him for seven days and seven nights.^(B) No one said a word to him,^(C) because they saw how great his suffering was.