Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king's gate,
In Esther 4:6 a court official walks out of the palace and finds a man sitting in the open square in front of the king's gate. Everything that follows for the Jews passes through that short walk, and the commentators explain why the two could not meet inside.
A queen who knew nothing
Esther was cut off from the news that had shaken the empire.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinEsther, in the secluded part of the palace, knew nothing of the great edict that had gone out. Her maids and chamberlains then told her that Mordecai was missing from inside the gate. She may have used them to keep in touch with her uncle. They said he was sitting outside in a most pitiable condition, weeping and wailing. How this report must have shocked Esther!
Why the square, and not the gate
Hathach had to go out because Mordecai could not come in. The reason lay in what Mordecai was wearing.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinAmong the Persians, sackcloth was also a sign of mourning over the dead, so they counted it unclean. They looked on the king's palace as a clean and holy place. So Mordecai could not enter the king's gate. He had to stand outside the wall.
The gate stopped Mordecai, but it did not stop word of him from reaching inside.
William KellyMordecai came to the king's gate, for no one could enter the gate clothed in sackcloth. He came before it, not within it, and Esther heard.
Mourning with a purpose
Kelly reads Mordecai's public grief as aimed at one listener inside the palace.
William KellyOur chapter opens with the deep grief of Mordecai and of the Jews wherever the king's decree reached. The report of it soon reached the queen, as it was meant to do. Mordecai fully counted on relief and deliverance through her. Until it came, he refused even her request to take off his sackcloth and ashes.
Mordecai's mourning was not despair. He grieved and expected rescue at the same time.
J. G. BellettWhen the fatal decree was issued, Mordecai fasted and mourned in sackcloth. But all the while he counted on deliverance. Such a combination is full of moral glory. Elijah gave an example of it in his day. He knew the rain was near. Yet he threw himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees, like a man in earnest, fervent prayer... So here with Mordecai. He will not lay aside his mourning. He refuses to be comforted while the decree stands against his people, though he counts, and truly counts, on their deliverance one way or another.
The messenger's errand
Esther's first move was clothing, not questions. Only when that failed did she send a man to ask.
Leslie M. GrantEsther sent clothing to Mordecai to replace the sackcloth, but he refused it (v. 4). So she sent Hatach, a eunuch of the king, to ask Mordecai the reason for his condition (v. 5). Even Hatach had not heard of Haman's evil plot, and Mordecai told him what had happened.
One thin thread of hope
What this conversation in the square opened up was slender. The only door left led back through the king himself.
H. L. RossierAnd yet there is still one ray of hope, though a very weak one. That ray of hope is that Esther should go to the king, plead with him, and make a request to him for her people. Mordecai commands her to do this. But what use is his command when even access to the king's presence is closed?... So the only way of escape is the grace of the one clothed with sovereign authority.
Summary
- Outside the gate. Sackcloth counted as unclean, so Mordecai could not enter the palace grounds. He stood before the gate, not within it.
- Voice through the gate. Shutting him out did not silence him. He mourned loudly and on purpose, and the queen heard.
- A servant sent through the gate. Esther, sealed off in the palace, knew nothing. She could not go herself, so she sent Hathach. Mordecai's reply named her with her own people.
- Mourning without despair. Mordecai refused comfort while the decree stood. Yet all along he counted on deliverance — grief and confidence in one man.
- Back through the gate to the throne. One escape was left: Esther must enter a presence closed to her, and depend on the king's grace.