Esther 4:2
1 When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
3 And in every province, whithersoever 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.
4 So Esther’s maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not.
Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering that gate.
- KJV
- And came even before the king’s gate: for none might enter into the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
- WEB
- He came even before the king’s gate, for no one is allowed inside the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.
- ASV
- and he came even before the king`s gate: for none might enter within the king`s gate clothed with sackcloth.
- DARBY
- and came even before the king's gate; for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.
- BLB
- And he came as far as before the face of the gate of the king, for no one [was] to come into the gate of the king in a garment of sackcloth.
- ÅB
- Og han kom like til plassen foran kongens port; for ingen som var kledd i sekk, hadde lov til å gå inn i kongens port.
- OTB
- Han gikk så langt som til kongens port, for ingen fikk lov til å gå inn i kongens port kledd i sekkestrie.
- B1930
- Og han kom like til plassen foran kongens port; for ingen som var klædd i sekk, hadde lov til å gå inn i kongens port.