Esther 4:3
What does Esther 4:3 mean?
A plain-English look at Esther 4:3 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Esther 4:3 means
Across the empire, the Jews respond in unison with great mourning, fasting, weeping, and wailing; many adopt sackcloth and ashes. The widespread grief shows the decree’s devastating, comprehensive reach. Fasting, though God is not named in Esther, signals humility and dependence upon divine mercy, a turning to the unseen Lord for help. This shared lament knits scattered communities into one afflicted people. Their practices express both the weight of sorrow and a posture of appeal for deliverance. The verse widens the lens from Mordecai’s individual mourning to a national crisis, revealing the urgency and depth of need that will require courageous intercession.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000And 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.
KJV
King James Version · 1611And 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.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901And 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.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949And in every part of the kingdom, wherever the king's word and his order came, there was great sorrow among the Jews, and weeping and crying and going without food; and numbers of them were stretched on the earth covered with dust and haircloth.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862And 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.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752And 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.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890And 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: many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Context
After noting Mordecai’s visible grief, the narrative broadens to show similar mourning among Jews in every province. This establishes the scope of the threat and the solidarity of the people. The communal fasting anticipates a plea for intervention, setting the spiritual backdrop for Esther’s emerging role. The next movement will bring the crisis into the palace as Esther learns of Mordecai’s condition, prompting investigation and the exchange of messages that frame her decision.
v.2and he came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter within the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
v.3This passage
v.4And 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.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Esther 4:16
Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast in like manner; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
- Isaiah 22:4
Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Matthew 25:30
And cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
- Matthew 13:42
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
- Isaiah 58:5
Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah?
- Isaiah 22:12
And in that day did the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: