Esther 4:3 In every province to which the king's command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

◄ Esther 4:3 ►

New International Version
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.

New Living Translation
And as news of the king’s decree reached all the provinces, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and wailed, and many people lay in burlap and ashes.

English Standard Version
And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Berean Standard Bible
In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
And in every province where the king’s command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

New American Standard Bible
In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and mourning rites; and many had sackcloth and ashes spread out as a bed.

NASB 1995
In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

NASB 1977
And in each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now in each and every province where the word and law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many made their bed in sackcloth and ashes.

Amplified Bible
In each and every province that the decree and law of the king reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

Christian Standard Bible
There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edict reached. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
There was great mourning among the Jewish people in every province where the king’s command and edict came. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.

American Standard Version
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.

Contemporary English Version
In every province where the king's orders were read, the Jews cried and mourned, and they went without eating. Many of them even put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.

English Revised Version
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.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
In every province touched by the king's command and decree, the Jews went into mourning, fasting, weeping, and wailing. Many put on sackcloth and ashes.

Good News Translation
Throughout all the provinces, wherever the king's proclamation was made known, there was loud mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, wailed, and most of them put on sackcloth and lay in ashes.

International Standard Version
In every province where the order of the king and his edict reached, among the Jewish people there was great mourning, fasting, weeping, and lamenting, and many lay down on sackcloth and ashes.

Majority Standard Bible
In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

NET Bible
Throughout each and every province where the king's edict and law were announced there was considerable mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic of many.

New Heart English Bible
In every province, wherever 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.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
In every province, wherever 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.

Literal Translations

Literal Standard Version
And in each and every province, the place where the word of the king, even his law, is coming, the Jews have a great mourning, and fasting, and weeping, and lamenting: sackcloth and ashes are spread for many.

Young's Literal Translation
And in every province and province, the place where the word of the king, even his law, is coming, a great mourning have the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and lamenting: sackcloth and ashes are spread for many.

Smith's Literal Translation
And in every province and province the place where the word of the king and his edict coming, great mourning to the Jews, and fasting and weeping and wailing; sackcloth and ashes will be spread to many.

Catholic Translations

Douay-Rheims Bible
And in all provinces, towns, and places, to which the king's cruel edict was come, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, wailing, and weeping, many using sackcloth and ashes for their bed.

Catholic Public Domain Version
Likewise, in all provinces, towns, and places where the king’s cruel decision arrived, there was extraordinary mourning among the Jews with fasting, wailing, and weeping, with many using sackcloth and ashes for their bed.

New American Bible
Likewise in each of the provinces, wherever the king’s decree and law reached, the Jews went into deep mourning, with fasting, weeping, and lament; most of them lay on sackcloth and ashes.

New Revised Standard Version
In every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Translations from Aramaic

Lamsa Bible
And in every province, wherever the king's decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting and weeping and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
And in every province, whenever the message of the King arrived, there was great grieving with the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and lamentations, and sackcloth, and ashes; it humbled a multitude.

OT Translations

JPS Tanakh 1917
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.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And in every province where the letters were published, there was crying and lamentation and great mourning on the part of the Jews: they spread for themselves sackcloth and ashes.

Additional Translations ...

Audio Bible

Context

Mordecai Appeals to Esther
…2But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering that gate. 3In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. 4When Esther’s maidens and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, the queen was overcome with distress. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.…

Berean Standard Bible · Download

Cross References

Joel 2:12-13
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.” / So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.

Jonah 3:5-9
And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. / When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. / Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink. ...

Daniel 9:3
So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Nehemiah 1:4
When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Isaiah 22:12
On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

Jeremiah 6:26
O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

Ezekiel 7:16-18
The survivors will escape and live in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley, each for his own iniquity. / Every hand will go limp, and every knee will turn to water. / They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.

2 Samuel 1:11-12
Then David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and all the men who were with him did the same. / They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

Lamentations 2:10
The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They have thrown dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground.

Amos 8:10
I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

Matthew 11:21
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Luke 10:13
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

James 4:9
Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

Revelation 11:3
And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Matthew 6:16-18
When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. / But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, / so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Treasury of Scripture

And in every province, wherever 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.

in every province.

Esther 1:1
Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)

Esther 3:12
Then were the king's scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king's lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king's ring.

great mourning.

1 Samuel 4:13,14
And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out…

1 Samuel 11:4
Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voices, and wept.

Isaiah 22:4,12
Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people…

weeping.

Matthew 13:42
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 22:13
Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 25:30
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

Isaiah 58:5
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

Daniel 9:3
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

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Esther 4

1. The great mourning of Mordecai and the Jews.
4. Esther, understanding it, sends to Mordecai,
7. who shows the cause, and advises her to undertake the suit.
10. She, excusing herself, is threatened by Mordecai.
15. She, appointing a fast, undertakes the suit.

Berean Study Bible

In every province
The phrase "in every province" indicates the widespread impact of the king's edict. The Persian Empire was vast, stretching from India to Ethiopia, encompassing 127 provinces. This highlights the extensive reach of the decree and the unity of the Jewish people across diverse regions. Historically, this demonstrates the centralized power of the Persian monarchy and the interconnectedness of its territories.

to which the edict and order of the king came
The "edict and order of the king" refers to the decree issued by King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) under the influence of Haman, which called for the annihilation of the Jewish people. The use of both "edict" and "order" emphasizes the formality and irrevocability of the decree, as Persian laws were known to be unchangeable once sealed by the king. This reflects the dire situation faced by the Jews and the absolute authority of the king.

there was great mourning among the Jews
"Great mourning" signifies the deep sorrow and despair experienced by the Jewish community. Mourning in ancient times often involved public displays of grief, and for the Jews, it was a communal expression of their collective fear and anguish. This mourning was not just personal but national, as the threat was against their entire people.

with fasting, weeping, and wailing
The practices of "fasting, weeping, and wailing" are traditional expressions of lamentation and repentance in Jewish culture. Fasting is a physical manifestation of humility and supplication before God, seeking His intervention. Weeping and wailing are outward expressions of inner turmoil and distress. These actions demonstrate the Jews' reliance on God in times of crisis, seeking His mercy and deliverance.

Many lay in sackcloth and ashes
"Sackcloth and ashes" were customary symbols of mourning and repentance in the ancient Near East. Sackcloth, a coarse material, was worn as a sign of humility and penitence, while ashes represented desolation and grief. This imagery conveys the depth of the Jews' despair and their earnest plea for divine intervention. It also reflects a biblical pattern where God's people, in times of great need, humble themselves and seek His face, trusting in His sovereignty and faithfulness.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - And in every province. As fast as the news spread, as province after province received the decree, the Jews spontaneously did as Mordecai had done - everywhere there was great sorrow, shown commonly by fasting, weeping, and wailing, while in numerous instances the mourners even went the length of putting on sackcloth and ashes. Thus an ever-increasing cloud of grief overshadowed the land. GRIEF OF ESTHER. HER COMMUNICATIONS WITH MORDECAI. SHE CONSENTS TO RISK MAKING AN APPEAL TO THE KING (Esther 4:4-17). Esther, in the seclusion of the harem, knew nothing of what the king and Haman had determined on. No one in the palace suspected how vitally she was concerned in the matter, since none knew that she was a Jewess, and state affairs are not commonly discussed between an Oriental monarch and a young wife. It was known, however, that she took an interest in Mordecai; and when that official was seen outside the palace gate in his mourning garb, it was reported to the queen. Not being aware why he grieved, but thinking that perhaps it was some light matter which he took too much to heart, she sent him a change of raiment, and requested him to put off his sackcloth. But Mordecai, without assigning any reason, refused (ver. 4). Esther upon this caused inquiry to be made of Mordecai concerning the reason of his mourning, and in this way became acquainted with what had happened (vers. 5-9). At the same time she found herself called on by Mordecai to incur a great danger, since he requested her to go at once to the king, and to intercede with him for her people (ver. 8). In reply, the queen pointed out the extreme risk which she would run in entering the royal presence uninvited, and the little chance that there was of her receiving a summons, since she had not had one for thirty days (ver. 11). Mordecai, however, was inexorable. He reminded Esther that she herself was threatened by the decree, and was not more likely to escape than any other Jew or Jewess; declared his belief that, if she withheld her aid, deliverance would arise from some other quarter; warned her that neglect of duty was apt to provoke a heavy retribution, and suggested that she might have been raised to her queenly dignity for the express purpose of her being thus able to save her nation (vers. 13, 14). The dutiful daughter, the true Jewess, could resist no longer; she only asked that Mordecai and the other Jews in Susa would fast for her three days, while she and her maidens also fasted, and then she would take her life in her hand, and enter the royal presence uninvited, though it was contrary to the law; the risk should be run, and then, as she said with a simple pathos never excelled, "if I perish, I perish" (ver. 16). Satisfied with this reply, Mordecai "went his way," and held the three days' fast which Esther had requested (ver. 17).

Parallel Commentaries ...

Hebrew

In every
וּבְכָל־ (ū·ḇə·ḵāl)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

province
מְדִינָ֣ה (mə·ḏî·nāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 4082: A judgeship, jurisdiction, a district, a region

to which
מְקוֹם֙ (mə·qō·wm)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 4725: A standing, a spot, a condition

the king’s
הַמֶּ֤לֶךְ (ham·me·leḵ)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4428: A king

command
דְּבַר־ (də·ḇar-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1697: A word, a matter, thing, a cause

and edict
וְדָתוֹ֙ (wə·ḏā·ṯōw)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 1881: A royal edict, statute

came,
מַגִּ֔יעַ (mag·gî·a‘)
Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 5060: To touch, lay the hand upon, to reach, violently, to strike

there was great
גָּדוֹל֙ (gā·ḏō·wl)
Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 1419: Great, older, insolent

mourning
אֵ֤בֶל (’ê·ḇel)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 60: Lamentation

among the Jews.
לַיְּהוּדִ֔ים (lay·yə·hū·ḏîm)
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - proper - masculine plural
Strong's 3064: Jews -- Jewish

They fasted,
וְצ֥וֹם (wə·ṣō·wm)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6685: Fasting, a fast

wept,
וּבְכִ֖י (ū·ḇə·ḵî)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1065: A weeping, a dripping

and lamented,
וּמִסְפֵּ֑ד (ū·mis·pêḏ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4553: A lamentation

and many
לָֽרַבִּֽים׃ (lā·rab·bîm)
Preposition-l, Article | Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 7227: Much, many, great

lay
יֻצַּ֖ע (yuṣ·ṣa‘)
Verb - Hofal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3331: To strew as a, surface

in sackcloth
שַׂ֣ק (śaq)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 8242: A mesh, coarse loose cloth, sacking, a bag

and ashes.
וָאֵ֔פֶר (wā·’ê·p̄er)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 665: Ashes

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OT History: Esther 4:3 In every province wherever the king's commandment (Est Esth. Es)