Esther 4:1-3 ▼

1 When Mordecai learned all that had occurred, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, went into the middle of the city, and cried loudly and bitterly.

2 He went only as far as the King’s Gate, since the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering the King’s Gate.

3 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.