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Select Readings: Esther's Triumph Esther 4:1–17

When Mordecai learned of all that had happened, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. / But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering that gate. / In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

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Select Readings: Esther's Triumph Esther 7:1–10

So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen, / and as they drank their wine on that second day, the king asked once more, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.” / Queen Esther replied, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, grant me my life as my petition, and the lives of my people as my request.

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