Esther 4:1

Learning of the decree, Mordecai tears his clothes, dons sackcloth and ashes, and wails publicly. His grief expresses the anguish of a people facing annihilation.

Cross-references · 21

• Dan 9:3I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
• 2 Sam 1:11Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and all the men who were with him did likewise.
• Ezek 27:30–31and shall cause their voice to be heard over you, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust on their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:
• 2 Sam 13:19Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore her garment of various colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went.
• Job 42:6Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
• Rev 18:17–19For in an hour such great riches are made desolate.’ Every ship master, and everyone who sails anywhere, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood far away,
• Acts 14:14But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes, and sprang into the multitude, crying out,
• Zeph 1:14The great day of Yahweh is near. It is near, and hurries greatly, the voice of the day of Yahweh. The mighty man cries there bitterly.
• Mic 1:8For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls.
• Josh 7:6Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before Yahweh’s ark until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.
• Job 1:20Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped.
• Ezek 21:6“Sigh therefore, you son of man. You shall sigh before their eyes with a broken heart and with bitterness.
• Isa 22:4Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
• Job 2:8He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
• Isa 58:5Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?
• Esth 4:3In every province, wherever 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.
• Matt 11:21“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
• Gen 27:34When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.”
• Isa 15:4Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them.
• Jonah 3:4–9Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
• Esth 3:8–13Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain.

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.