Esther 4:1

1 Now when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;

2 and he came even before the king`s gate: for none might enter within the king`s gate clothed with sackcloth.

3 And in every province, whithersoever the king`s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

4 And Esther`s maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him; but he received it not.

5 Then called Esther for Hathach, one of the king`s chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and why it was.

6 So Hathach went forth to Mordecai unto the broad place of the city, which was before the king`s gate.

7 And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king`s treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.