Esther 4:1-4

Esther Decides to Risk Everything in order to Help Her People

4:1 Now when Mordecai became aware of all that had been done, he ¹  tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the city, crying out in a loud ²  and bitter voice. 4:2 But he went no further than the king’s gate, for no one was permitted to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. 4:3 Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced ³  there was considerable ⁴  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ⁵  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ⁶  of many. 4:4 When Esther’s female attendants and her eunuchs came and informed her about Mordecai’s behavior, ⁷  the queen was overcome with anguish. Although she sent garments for Mordecai to put on so that he could remove his sackcloth, he would not accept them.

Job 2:8

2:8 Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ⁸  himself ⁹  with while he was sitting ¹⁰  among the ashes. ¹¹ 

Job 42:6

42:6 Therefore I despise myself, ¹² 

and I repent in dust and ashes!

Jeremiah 6:26

6:26 So I said, ¹³  “Oh, my dear people, ¹⁴  put on sackcloth

and roll in ashes.

Mourn with painful sobs

as though you had lost your only child.

For any moment now ¹⁵  that destructive army ¹⁶ 

will come against us.”

Lamentations 3:29

3:29 Let him bury his face in the dust; ¹⁷ 

perhaps there is hope.

Daniel 9:3

9:3 So I turned my attention ¹⁸  to the Lord God ¹⁹  to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ²⁰ 

Micah 1:10

1:10 Don’t spread the news in Gath! ²¹ 

Don’t shed even a single tear! ²² 

In Beth Leaphrah sit in the dust! ²³ 

Matthew 11:21

11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! ²⁴  Woe to you, Bethsaida! If ²⁵  the miracles ²⁶  done in you had been done in Tyre ²⁷  and Sidon, ²⁸  they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Luke 10:13

10:13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! ²⁹  Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if ³⁰  the miracles ³¹  done in you had been done in Tyre ³²  and Sidon, ³³  they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

[4:1]  ¹ tn Heb “Mordecai.” The pronoun (“he”) was used in the translation for stylistic reasons. A repetition of the proper name here is redundant in terms of contemporary English style.

[4:1]  ² tn Heb “great.”

[4:3]  ³ tn Heb “reached” (so NAB, NLT); KJV, NASB, NIV “came”; TEV “wherever the king’s proclamation was made known.”

[4:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the Jews went into deep mourning.”

[4:3]  ⁵ sn Although prayer is not specifically mentioned here, it is highly unlikely that appeals to God for help were not a part of this reaction to devastating news. As elsewhere in the book of Esther, the writer seems deliberately to keep religious actions in the background.

[4:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “were spread to many”; KJV, NIV “many (+ people NLT) lay in sackcloth and ashes.”

[4:4]  ⁷ tn The words “about Mordecai’s behavior” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in translation for the sake of clarity. Cf. NIV, NLT “about Mordecai”; TEV, CEV “what Mordecai was doing.”

[2:8]  ⁸ tn The verb גָּרַד (garad) is a hapax legomenon (only occurring here). Modern Hebrew has retained a meaning “to scrape,” which is what the cognate Syriac and Arabic indicate. In the Hitpael it would mean “scrape himself.”

[2:8]  ⁹ sn The disease required constant attention. The infection and pus had to be scraped away with a piece of broken pottery in order to prevent the spread of the infection. The skin was so disfigured that even his friends did not recognize him (2:12). The book will add that the disease afflicted him inwardly, giving him a foul breath and a loathsome smell (19:17, 20). The sores bred worms; they opened and ran, and closed and tightened (16:8). He was tormented with dreams (7:14). He felt like he was choking (7:14). His bones were racked with burning pain (30:30). And he was not able to rise from his place (19:18). The disease was incurable; but it would last for years, leaving the patient longing for death.

[2:8]  ¹⁰ tn The construction uses the disjunctive vav (ו) with the independent pronoun with the active participle. The construction connects this clause with what has just been said, making this a circumstantial clause.

[2:8]  ¹¹ sn Among the ashes. It is likely that the “ashes” refers to the place outside the city where the rubbish was collected and burnt, i.e., the ash-heap (cf. CEV). This is the understanding of the LXX, which reads “dung-hill outside the city.”

[42:6]  ¹² tn Or “despise what I said.” There is no object on the verb; Job could be despising himself or the things he said (see L. J. Kuyper, “Repentance of Job,” VT 9 [1959]: 91-94).

[6:26]  ¹³ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.

[6:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.

[6:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “suddenly.”

[6:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the destroyer.”

[3:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Let him put his mouth in the dust.”

[9:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “face.”

[9:3]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew phrase translated “Lord God” here is אֲדֹנָי הָאֱלֹהִים (’adonay ha’elohim).

[9:3]  ²⁰ sn When lamenting, ancient Israelites would fast, wear sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads to show their sorrow and contrition.

[1:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “Tell it not in Gath.” The Hebrew word for “tell” (נָגַד, nagad) sounds like the name of the city, Gath (גַּת, gat).

[1:10]  ²² tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute before the negated jussive emphasizes the prohibition.

[1:10]  ²³ tc The translation assumes a masculine plural imperative. If one were to emend בְּבֵית (bÿvet) to בֵית (vet), Beth Leaphrah would then be the addressee and the feminine singular imperative (see Qere) could be retained, “O Beth Leaphrah, sit in the dust.”

[11:21]  ²⁴ sn Chorazin was a town of Galilee that was probably fairly small in contrast to Bethsaida and is otherwise unattested. Bethsaida was declared a polis by the tetrarch Herod Philip, sometime after a.d. 30.

[11:21]  ²⁵ tn This introduces a second class (contrary to fact) condition in the Greek text.

[11:21]  ²⁶ tn Or “powerful deeds.”

[11:21]  ²⁷ map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[11:21]  ²⁸ sn Tyre and Sidon are two other notorious OT cities (Isa 23; Jer 25:22; 47:4). The remark is a severe rebuke, in effect: “Even the sinners of the old era would have responded to the proclamation of the kingdom, unlike you!”

[10:13]  ²⁹ sn Chorazin was a town of Galilee that was probably fairly small in contrast to Bethsaida and is otherwise unattested. Bethsaida was declared a polis by the tetrarch Herod Philip, sometime after a.d. 30.

[10:13]  ³⁰ tn This introduces a second class (contrary to fact) condition in the Greek text.

[10:13]  ³¹ tn Or “powerful deeds.”

[10:13]  ³² map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[10:13]  ³³ sn Tyre and Sidon are two other notorious OT cities (Isa 23; Jer 25:22; 47:4). The remark is a severe rebuke, in effect: “Even the sinners of the old era would have responded to the proclamation of the kingdom, unlike you!”