Esther 4:1

Mordochai learnt all that was done, - not only what had been openly proclaimed, but, as is shown by Est 4:7, also the transaction between the king and Haman. Then he rent his garments, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, making loud and bitter lamentation. Comp. on the last words, Gen 27:34. The combination of אפר with שׂק ילבּשׁ is an abbreviation for: put on a hairy garment and spread ashes upon his head, in sign of deep grief; comp. Dan 9:3; Job 2:12, and elsewhere. Est 4:2 And came even before the king's gate, i.e., according to Est 4:6, the open space before the entrance to the royal palace; for none might enter wearing mourning. לבוא אין, there is no entering, i.e., none may enter; comp. Ewald, 321, c. Est 4:3 Also in every province whither the king's decree arrived, there arose a great mourning among the Jews. אשׁר מקום is an adverbial accusat. loci in apposition to בּכל־מדינה: in every place to which the word of the king and his decree reached, i.e., arrived. "Sackcloth and ashes were spread for many," i.e., many sat in hairy garments upon the earth, where ashes had been spread; comp. Isa 58:5. The meaning is: All the Jews broke out into mourning, weeping, and lamentation, while many manifested their grief in the manner above described.

Here we have an account of the general sorrow that there was among the Jews upon the publishing of Haman's bloody edict against them. It was a sad time with the church. 1. Mordecai cried bitterly, rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth, Est 4:1, Est 4:2. He not only thus vented his grief, but proclaimed it, that all might take notice of it that he was not ashamed to own himself a friend to the Jews, and a fellow-sufferer with them, their brother and companion in tribulation, how despicable and how odious soever they were now represented by Haman's faction. It was nobly done thus publicly to espouse what he knew to be a righteous cause, and the cause of God, even when it seemed a desperate and a sinking cause. Mordecai laid the danger to heart more than any because he knew that Haman's spite was against him primarily, and that it was for his sake that the rest of the Jews were struck at; and therefore, though he did not repent of what some would call his obstinacy, for he persisted in it (Est 5:9), yet it troubled him greatly that his people should suffer for his scruples, which perhaps occasioned some of them to reflect upon him as too precise. But, being able to appeal to God that what he did he did from a principle of conscience, he could with comfort commit his own cause and that of his people to him that judgeth righteously. 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. Nothing but what was gay and pleasant must appear at court, and every thing that was…

4:1 Mordecai’s dramatic response showed extreme grief and mourning (see 2 Sam 1:11; Ezra 9; Jon 3:5-9).