4 When Morʹde·cai+ learned of everything that had been done,+ he ripped his garments apart and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he went out into the middle of the city, crying out loudly and bitterly. 2 He went only as far as the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate wearing sackcloth. 3 And in every province*+ where the king’s word and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, along with fasting+ and weeping and wailing. Many were lying down in sackcloth and ashes.+