Quotes About Courage

he sent back to her this reply: “Do not imagine that because you are in the kingís palace you alone will escape the fate of all the Jews.

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your fatherís house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai:

“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”

So Mordecai went and did all that Esther had instructed him.

On the third day, Esther put on her royal attire and stood in the inner court of the palace across from the kingís quarters. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal courtroom, facing the entrance.

As soon as the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she found favor in his sight. The king extended the gold scepter in his hand toward Esther, and she approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

“What is it, Queen Esther?” the king inquired. “What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given to you.”

“If it pleases the king,” Esther replied, “may the king and Haman come today to the banquet I have prepared for the king.”

Esther replied, “This is my petition and my request:

If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, may the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the kingís question.”

Yet none of this satisfies me as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the kingís gate.”

And there it was found recorded that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the kingís entrance, when they had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.

Then Mordecai returned to the kingís gate. But Haman rushed home, with his head covered in grief.

So the king and Haman went to dine with Esther the queen,

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.

For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”

Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?”

Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.

Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high at Hamanís house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.” “Hang him on it!” declared the king.

That same day King Xerxes awarded Queen Esther the estate of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. And Mordecai entered the kingís presence because Esther had revealed his relation to her.

And once again, Esther addressed the king. She fell at his feet weeping and begged him to revoke the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews.

The king extended the gold scepter toward Esther, and she arose and stood before the king.

“If it pleases the king,” she said, “and if I have found favor in his sight, and the matter seems proper to the king, and I am pleasing in his sight, may an order be written to revoke the letters that the scheming Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, wrote to destroy the Jews in all the kingís provinces.