r sent the very same eunuch back to
Mordecai [to desire him] to go to Shushan, and to gather the Jews that
were there together to a congregation, and to fast and abstain from all
sorts of food, on her account, and [to let him know that] she with her
maidens would do the same: and then she promised that she would go to
the king, though it were against the law, and that if she must die for
it, she would not refuse it.

8. Accordingly, Mordecai did as Esther had enjoined him, and made the
people fast; and he besought God, together with them, not to overlook
his nation, particularly at this time, when it was going to be
destroyed; but that, as he had often before provided for them, and
forgiven, when they had sinned, so he would now deliver them from that
destruction which was denounced against them; for although it was not
all the nation that had offended, yet must they so ingloriously be
slain, and that he was himself the occasion of the wrath of Haman,
"Because," said he, "I did not worship him, nor could I endure to pay
that honor to him which I used to pay to thee, O Lord; for upon that his
anger hath he contrived this present mischief against those that have
not transgressed thy laws." The same supplications did the multitude put
up, and entreated that God would provide for their deliverance, and free
the Israelites that were in all the earth from this calamity which was
now coming upon them, for they had it before their eyes, and expected
its coming. Accordingly, Esther made supplication to God after the
manner of her country, by casting herself down upon the earth, and
putting on her mourning garments, and bidding farewell to meat and
drink, and all delicacies, for three days' time; and she entreated God
to have mercy upon her, and make her words appear persuasive to the
king, and render her countenance more beautiful than it was before, that
both by her words and beauty she might succeed, for the averting of the
king's anger, in case he were at all irritated against her, and for the
consolation of those of her own country, now they were in the utmost
danger of perishing; as also that he would excite a hatred in the king
against the enemies of the Jews, and those that had contrived their
future destruction, if they proved to be contemned by him.

9. When Esther had used this supplication for three days, she put off
those garments, and changed her habit, and adorned herself as became
a queen, and took two of her han