Esther 4

2 clothed with sackcloth. Nothing was allowed to enter the palace which did not bear the aspect of joy and pleasure, or which could remind the king of misery or mortality.

6 street. The open square before the palace gates: see Ezra x. 9, and note.

11 one law of his. Heb., “for him”; i.e., the intruder.

the golden sceptre. The golden sceptre of the Persian kings is referred to by Xenophon (Cyrop. viii. 7, 13), and appears from existing sculptures to have been a long staff, probably of wood overlaid and tipped with gold.

14 for such a time as this. Subsequent events showed that Mordecai had correctly interpreted the ways of Providence.

16 neither eat nor drink. That is, abstaining from set meals, and from all “pleasant food” (see Dan. x. 3); taking only what might be absolutely necessary to sustain life. Though prayer is not specified here, or in ver. 3, it is evidently implied; prayer being always connected with fasting in Scripture. The efficacy of this humble and earnest appeal to their Divine Protector is seen in the next chapter.

I also and my maidens will fast likewise. Joining privately in the palace, as they were unable to attend the Jewish assemblies in the city.