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[221]
Now when Mordecai was informed of what was done, he rent his clothes,
and put on sackcloth, and sprinkled ashes upon his head, and went about
the city, crying out, that "a nation that had been injurious to no
man was to be destroyed." And he went on saying thus as far as to
the king's palace, and there he stood, for it was not lawful for him to
go into it in that habit. The same thing was done by all the Jews that
were in the several cities wherein this decree was published, with lamentation
and mourning, on account of the calamities denounced against them. But
as soon as certain persons had told the queen that Mordecai stood before
the court in a mourning habit, she was disturbed at this report, and sent
out such as should change his garments; but when he could not be induced
to put off his sackcloth, because the sad occasion that forced him to put
it on was not yet ceased, she called the eunuch Acratheus, for he was then
present, and sent him to Mordecai, in order to know of him what sad accident
had befallen him, for which he was in mourning, and would not put off the
habit he had put on at her desire. Then did Mordecai inform the eunuch
of the occasion of his mourning, and of the decree which was sent by the
king into all the country, and of the promise of money whereby Haman brought
the destruction of their nation. He also gave him a copy of what was proclaimed
at Shushan, to be carried to Esther; and he charged her to petition the
king about this matter, and not to think it a dishonorable thing in her
to put on a humble habit, for the safety of her nation, wherein she might
deprecate the ruin of the Jews, who were in danger of it; for that Haman,
whose dignity was only inferior to that of the king, had accused the Jews,
and had irritated the king against them. When she was informed of this,
she sent to Mordecai again, and told him that she was not called by the
king, and that he who goes in to him without being called, is to be slain,
unless when he is willing to save any one, he holds out his golden scepter
to him; but that to whomsoever he does so, although he go in without being
called, that person is so far from being slain, that he obtains pardon,
and is entirely preserved. Now when the eunuch carried this message from
Esther to Mordecai, he bade him also tell her that she must not only provide
for her own preservation, but for the common preservation of her nation,
for that if she now neglected this opportunity, there would certainly arise
help to them from God some other way, but she and her father's house would
be destroyed by those whom she now despised. But Esther sent the very same
eunuch back to Mordecai [to desire him] to go to Shushan, and to gather
the Jews that were there together to a congregation, and to fast and abstain
from all sorts of food, on her account, and [to let him know that] she
with her maidens would do the same: and then she promised that she would
go to the king, though it were against the law, and that if she must die
for it, she would not refuse it.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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