The news carried by the Persian mail carriers, of death to every Jew on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, threw the children of Israel into the deepest mourning (verses 1-3). The decree once made could not be reversed (chapter 8, verse 8, and Daniel 6:1515Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed. (Daniel 6:15)), and apparently nothing but a violent death was in prospect for every one of them.
Mordecai with his clothes torn, and wearing sackcloth with ashes, came before the king's gate, but he might not enter there. Within the gate, Esther and her maids and chamberlains were quite ignorant of what had happened, until Mordecai's strange appearance was noticed, and the whole story was learned from him.
One only hope remained: Queen Esther must intercede with the king for her people; so Mordecai felt. But to do so, she must endanger her own life, for none might go to the king in the inner court unless called, or except the king should hold out the golden scepter, and he had not sent for Esther for thirty days.
But Mordecai sent back to Esther a warning and a danger appeal, he did not say that God would send help if she did not speak to the king, but it is plain that this is what he meant when he said that if Esther failed, "then shall there enlargement (relief) and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. Mordecai's faith looked to God in this great peril, but the name of God is not mentioned, He is hidden, as throughout the book of Esther.
Esther's answer was on the same order: she asked that the Jews in Shushan be gathered together, and that they should neither eat nor drink for three days; she and her maidens would likewise fast; after that she would go in to the king. They were thus to humble themselves before God;—would He look upon His sorely tried people and deliver them?