Estherchapter 4
17 verses · unknown · 5th century BC · History
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Introduction
unknown, History, Esther Overview.
This chapter was written for Jews scattered in cities and courts they had not chosen, each one deciding whether to speak or stay quiet. It is the place where the book stops being a comedy of the court. The whole chapter is carried by messages, since the two people in it cannot meet. It holds the most quoted words in the book and the moment Esther decides what kind of queen she will be. Listen for the risk she names, and weigh it before you hear her answer. Notice too what the people do in the three days that follow, and what the book leaves unsaid about it.
Context
- Who
- Jews who had themselves torn their clothes over news they could do nothing about
- What
- Mordecai and the Jews mourn the decree, and Mordecai persuades Esther to go to the king uninvited at the risk of her life.
- Where
- The city square before the king's gate at Susa, and the palace, with messages carried between them by a eunuch.
- When
- The first month of the twelfth year of Ahasuerus, about 474 BC, within days of the decree.
- Why
- To show that the one placed near power must use her place for her people, whatever it costs her.
Historical context
Public mourning in that world was loud and physical: the robe torn, rough sackcloth worn against the skin, ashes on the head, wailing in the street. It was not private grief but a signal, meant to be seen. And a Persian palace would not tolerate it, a man in sackcloth could not pass the gate, because the king's presence was supposed to be untouched by anything ugly.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
That single rule sets up the whole chapter. Mordecai cannot come in; Esther cannot come out; everything has to travel through a eunuch carrying words and a copy of the decree back and forth across a courtyard.
The law Esther describes is documented. No one approached the Persian king in the inner court uninvited, on pain of death, unless he extended the golden sceptre. Carved reliefs from Persepolis show the enthroned king holding a long staff with an official bowing before him, hand raised to his lips. The danger was real even for a queen, especially a queen who, as she says, had not been summoned in thirty days.
Her answer is a three-day total fast, day and night, by every Jew in Susa. Jewish fasting normally ran from dawn to dusk; a full three-day abstention from food and water is extreme, the response of people who expect to die. The book never mentions prayer here, but no Jewish hearer would have imagined a fast without it.
Significance
This is the chapter where the book stops being a court comedy. Mordecai's line, that deliverance will come from somewhere else if she stays silent, and who knows whether she came to the throne for such a time as this, puts the whole thing in one sentence: God's purpose does not depend on her, and her choice still matters completely.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Scattered Jews heard their own position in that. They were placed, without choosing it, in cities and courts not their own. The chapter says the placement is not an accident, and that safety bought by silence is not safety.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard inside the whole scroll at Purim. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records that the scroll is read twice, in the evening and again the next morning, from a handwritten roll, and that the congregation is expected to hear every word. The table cites Mishnah Megillah 2 and Babylonian Talmud Megillah 18a. The book has no weekly portion and no Haftarah in the same table.
The fast Esther asks for at the end of the chapter carries a question of practice in the commentary, taken up under the next heading. The corpus opens the Talmud's discussion of it at Megillah 15a, with locators at 15a:10, 15a:11, 15a:13, 15a:14 and 15a:15 spread across the chapter's verses.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The edition prints its own numbered notes inside his words, and a note is named here as the edition's. Mordechai learned of the decree from the Master of Dreams, who told him the heavenly beings had consented to it. The reasons were that the people had bowed to the idol in Nebuchadnezzar's days and had enjoyed the king's feast (Rashi on Esther 4:1:1). The edition's note explains why a dream. The Holy Spirit dwells only amid joy, and Shushan was in confusion. It also gives another reading, that Elijah the prophet told him.
The small notes keep the court's rules in view. One could not enter the king's gate in sackcloth (Rashi on Esther 4:2:1). Mordechai sent Esther the account of the silver (Rashi on Esther 4:7:1), and the edition's note reads it as proof that the king could not be bribed. The pressure on Esther is dated. They were then in Nisan, and the massacre was set for Adar of the next year (Rashi on Esther 4:14:2). Rashi reads Mordechai's warning as a plain one: do not think to escape in the king's palace on the day of the massacre (Rashi on Esther 4:13:1).
Esther's answer is read in two ways, and Rashi keeps both. By the plain sense, entering unsummoned was against the law. The Midrash Aggadah reads her words as about herself: "for until now I was coerced [to live with Achashveirosh], but now [I will do so] willingly" (Rashi on Esther 4:16:1). The edition's note names Maseches Megillah 15a.
The last note is the one with a bearing on Jewish practice. Rashi says Mordechai transgressed the law by fasting on the first festive day of Pesach. He fasted on the fourteenth, the fifteenth and the sixteenth, since the letters were written on the thirteenth (Rashi on Esther 4:17:1). The edition's note explains the authority for it. It says the Sanhedrin could suspend such an obligation in extreme need, and names Maseches Megillah 15a. It then records that Esther Rabbah 8:7 holds another opinion, that the three days were the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth of Nisan. The two counts stand side by side in the edition.
The corpus carries fifteen further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Eight stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Esther 4:1:1, 4:2:1, 4:3:1, 4:4:1, 4:7:1, 4:8:1, 4:11:1 and 4:13:1. Seven stand at Malbim on Esther 4:4:1, 4:5:1, 4:6:1, 4:8:1, 4:10:1, 4:11:1 and 4:12:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Thirty-one are Midrash and nine are Talmud. On the first verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 67:4 and 84:20, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Megillah 1:31, and Esther Rabbah 6:3 and 7:13. On the second it holds Berakhot 62b:24, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 9:5:13, Kohelet Rabbah 4:17:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 50:4:6. On the third it holds Devarim Rabbah 2:22 and Esther Rabbah at 1:3, 10:9 and 4:10.
The messages between Esther and Mordechai draw the next run. On the fourth verse the corpus holds Ein Yaakov, Sotah 3:2, Esther Rabbah 8:3, Megillah 15a:10 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 15:14:2. On the fifth it holds Bava Batra 4a:9, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 1:3, Esther Rabbah 8:4 and Megillah 15a:11. On the seventh it holds Esther Rabbah 8:5, Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 2:2:6, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 24:12:3 and Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Abba Guryon 4:3. On the eighth it holds Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 16:1:4 and Shemot Rabbah 30:4, and on the ninth Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Abba Guryon 4:4.
The decision and the fast carry the rest. On the eleventh verse the corpus holds Shemot Rabbah 15:6 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 1:2. On the twelfth it holds Megillah 15a:13, and on the thirteenth Midrash Tehillim 22:3. On the fourteenth it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 11 and Esther Rabbah 8:6, and on the fifteenth Esther Rabbah 8:7. On the sixteenth it holds Bereshit Rabbah 44:17, Megillah 15a:14, and Midrash Tehillim 22:17 and 22:5. On the seventeenth it holds Megillah 15a:15. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Esther 4:1:1 to 4:17:1, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Esther 4:1:1, 4:2:1, 4:3:1, 4:4:1, 4:7:1, 4:8:1, 4:11:1 and 4:13:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Esther 4:4:1, 4:5:1, 4:6:1, 4:8:1, 4:10:1, 4:11:1 and 4:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/esther/4.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the FESTIVAL_READINGS entry for esther at Purim citing Mishnah Megillah 2, Babylonian Talmud Megillah 18a and the Rema's gloss to Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 690:17, and no portion or Haftarah for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Sackcloth in the middle of the city, and a copy of the decree
Esther 4:1-3
When Mordecai learned of all: Mordecai puts on "sackcloth and ashes" and goes "wailing loudly and bitterly," as far as the king's gate, because the law barred sackcloth there. The Hebrew of his great and bitter cry is the phrase used of Esau at Genesis 27:34, a likeness the commentators note.
Esther 4:1
“Mordecai rent his clothes - He gave every demonstration of the most poignant and oppressive grief. Nor did he hide this from the city; and the Greek says that he uttered these words aloud: Αιρεται εθνος μηδεν ηδικηκος, A people are going to be destroyed, who have done no evil!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
But he went only: Albert Barnes notes that this law appears nowhere else, though its principle held across the East: nothing of ill omen came before the king. John Gill reads Mordecai’s place at the gate as a way to reach Esther inside. The gate was as close as his grief could come.
Esther 4:2
“Before the king’s gate - He could not enter into the gate, of the place where the officers waited, because he was in the habit of a mourner; for this would have been contrary to law.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
In every province to which the king’s: These were the Jews who had stayed in the provinces after Cyrus gave their people leave to return. Matthew Henry suggests some now regretted that choice. John Gill adds that many used sackcloth and ashes as their only bed through the night.
Esther 4:3
“Fasting, and weeping, and wailing - How astonishing, that in all this there is not the slightest intimation given of praying to God!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 4:4-6
When Esther’s maidens and eunuchs came: Esther's first response is clothing, and "he would not accept them": comfort is refused until the truth is faced. The queen must learn of her people's death sentence through Hathach, because the palace has sealed her off from the city's news. Every message in these verses passes through a go-between.
Esther 4:4
“Then was the queen . . . grieved; and . . . sent raiment to . . . Mordecai--Her object in doing so was either to qualify him for resuming his former office, or else, perhaps, of fitting him to come near enough to the palace to inform her of the cause of such sudden and extreme distress.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s: Hathach was the king’s appointment, placed with Esther to serve her. Adam Clarke adds that such a servant also watched the queen for the king. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that it served a chief eunuch to win the queen’s favor as well.
Esther 4:5
“Then called Esther for Hatach - This eunuch the king had appointed to wait upon her, partly, as is still the case in the East, to serve her, and partly, to observe her conduct; for no despot is ever exempt from a twofold torture, jealousy and suspicion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Esther 4:5
“When the commission is executed, the subaltern communicates it to the superintendent, by whom it is delivered to the queen. This chief eunuch, usually an old man who has recommended himself by a long course of faithful service, is always appointed by the king; but it is his interest, as well as his duty, to ingratiate himself with the queen also.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
So Hathach went out to Mordecai: Hathach met Mordecai in the open square in front of the king’s gate, the nearest place his sackcloth allowed him to stand. John Gill notes that he kept his grief public there, on the road that led to the palace. The queen’s servant had to go out to him.
Esther 4:6
“So Hatach went forth to Mordecai, unto the street of the city,.... Where he was, in a public manner, expressing his grief and sorrow: which was before the king's gate: that led to the royal palace.”
Esther 4:7-9
told him all that had happened: The charge ends on its last words, "plead before him for her people". It is the first time the book names the Jews to her as her people. The secret of 2:10 is being called due.
Mordecai also gave Hathach a copy: Mordecai’s copy of the decree put Haman’s own words before Esther. Clarke notes that the Greek adds a charge to Mordecai’s message: remember your low estate, and pray to the Lord. The Hebrew, the Syriac and the Vulgate lack it.
Esther 4:8
“That she should go in unto the king - The Greek adds, “Remember the time of your low estate, and in what manner you have been nourished, and carried in my arms; and that Haman, who is next to the king, has got a decree for our destruction. Pray, therefore, to the Lord, and plead with the king, that we may be delivered from death.” But there is not a word of this either in the Hebrew, Syriac, or Vulgate.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Who knows whether you have come for such a time as this?
So Hathach went back and relayed Mordecai’s: Hathach carried the whole message back to Esther: the danger, its cause, and what Mordecai asked of her, as John Gill sets it out. Gill adds that a king’s wife could speak with those outside only through such a eunuch. Her answer went back the same way.
Esther 4:9
“And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Both the case of the Jews, and the cause of it, and what he would have her do at this critical juncture.”
1 more voice on this verse
Esther 4:9
“God will keep those that are exposed by the tenderness of their consciences. Notice is here taken of a law that none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth; though the arbitrary power of their kings often, as now, set many a mourning, yet none must come near the king in a mourning dress, because he was not willing to hear the complaints of such.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Esther 4:10-12
Then Esther spoke to Hathach: The excavated palace at Susa gives the scene a real setting. Esther's last clause is the confession that matters: "I have not been summoned to appear before the king for the past thirty days". The favor that won her the crown at 2:17 may have cooled.
Esther 4:10
“Again Esther spake unto Hatach,.... For there was no other way of corresponding and conversing but by an eunuch; the wives of kings being altogether under their watch and care: and gave him commandment unto Mordecai; to go unto him, and what he should say to him from her, which is as follows.”
All the royal officials and the people: Wesley gives two purposes for the law, the king’s majesty and his safety, and adds that it kept access in the hands of his officers. Clarke suspects that Haman had drawn the king away from Esther for those thirty days. Barnes finds the gold scepter in the Persepolis reliefs.
Esther 4:11
“The golden scepter - In all the numerous representations of Persian kings at Persepolis the monarch holds a long tapering staff (probably the scepter of Esther) in his right hand. It was death to intrude on the privacy of the Persian king uninvited.”
1 more voice on this verse
Esther 4:11
“It is not thus in the court of the King of kings; to the footstool of his throne of grace we may at any time come boldly, and may be sure of an answer of peace to the prayer of faith. We are welcome, not only into the inner court, but even into the holiest, through the blood of Jesus.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
When Esther’s words were relayed to Mordecai: John Gill names the carriers here as the messengers Esther sent, so the exchange had widened beyond Hathach. Her refusal now stood before Mordecai in full, the law of the inner court and the thirty days. His reply sets her risk against the risk of silence.
Esther 4:12
“And they told to Mordecai Esther's, words. The messengers she sent to him.”
Esther 4:13-14
he sent back to her: Mordecai answers that relief "will arise from another place" if she stays silent. He ends, "who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Most of the older commentators, with the Targums, read another place as a veiled reference to God.
Esther 4:13
“Think not - that thou shalt escape - This confirms the suspicion that Haman knew something of the relationship between Mordecai and Esther; and therefore he gives her to understand that, although in the king’s palace, she should no more escape than the Jews.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
For if you remain silent at this time: Barnes reads the warning that Esther and her father’s house will perish as judgment on a duty neglected. Spurgeon applied the verse to every believer and church, each placed where it stands for such a time. Henry calls Mordecai’s certainty of deliverance strong faith.
Esther 4:14
"If thou shouldst decline the service, enlargement and deliverance will arise to the Jews from another place. " This was the language of a strong faith, which staggered not at the promise when the danger was most threatening, but against hope believed in hope. Instruments may fail, but God's covenant will not.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Esther 4:14
“Then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise - He had a confidence that deliverance would come by some means; and he thought that Esther would be the most likely; and that, if she did not use the influence which her providential station gave her, she would be highly culpable. And who knoweth whether thou art come - As if he had said, “Is it likely that Divine providence would have so distinguished thee, and raised thee from a state of abject obscurity, merely for thy own sake? Must it not have been on some public account!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esther 4:14
“From another place - This was the language of strong faith, against hope believing in hope. Who knoweth - It is probable God hath raised thee to this honour for this very season. We should every one of us consider, for what end God has put us in the place where we are?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Fast for me, and if I perish, I perish
Esther 4:15-16
Then Esther sent this reply: Esther asks Mordecai to "assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me" three days. She will go to the king, accepting the cost: "And if I perish, I perish". Those words are unique in Scripture, and older writers set them beside Daniel 3:18.
Esther 4:15
“She believed that God's favour was to be obtained by prayer, that his people are a praying people, and he a prayer-hearing God. She knew it was the practice of good people, in extraordinary cases, to join fasting with prayer, and many of them to join together in both.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Go and assemble all the Jews: Clement of Rome set Esther beside Judith as a woman perfect in faith who went to the king to save the twelve tribes. Wesley, Henry and Barnes take the fast as a time of prayer, and Clarke found it strange that the text names neither God nor prayer.
Esther 4:16
“Fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days - What a strange thing, that still we hear nothing of prayer, nor of God! What is the ground on which we can account for this total silence? I know it not. She could not suppose there was any charm in fasting, sackcloth garments, and lying on the ground. If these were not done to turn away the displeasure of God, which seemed now to have unchained their enemies against them, what were they done for?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Esther 4:16
“Fast - And pray; so as you use to do, leave off your common dinners by day, and suppers at night, and eat and drink no more than mere necessity requires; that so you may give yourselves to constant and fervent prayers.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Esther 4:16
“Why did Queen Esther expose herself to death and not fear the wrath of a fierce king? Was it not to save her people from death, an act both seemly and virtuous? The king of Persia himself also, though fierce and proud, yet thought it seemly to show honor to the man who had given information about a plot that had been laid against himself, to save a free people from slavery, to snatch them from death and not to spare him who had pressed on such unseemly plans.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Duties of the Clergy 3.21.123-24patristic
Esther 4:16
“Many women, fortified by the grace of God, have accomplished many heroic actions. The blessed Judith, when the city was besieged, asked permission of the elders to be allowed to go into the foreigners' camp. By exposing herself to danger she went out for love of her country and of the people who were besieged, and the Lord delivered Holophernes into the hand of a woman. To no less danger did Esther, who was perfect in faith, expose herself, in order to save the twelve tribes of Israel that were to be destroyed.”
Clement of Rome · written before 99 · 1 CLEMENT 55.3-6patristic
So Mordecai went and did: The chapter closes on a reversal of authority the narrator leaves without comment. Mordecai, who instructed Esther at 2:10 and 2:20, now "did all that Esther had instructed him". The ward has become the leader, and from this verse forward the book's initiative belongs to the queen.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1777: “Esther's Exaltation—or, Who Knows?” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Clement of Rome, 1 CLEMENT 55.3-6; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).