TSK · Esther 4:3

When he arrived in Shiloh, Eli was sitting in his chair on the lookout by the side of the road, for he was very worried about the ark of God. As the man entered the city to give his report, the whole city cried out.

¶ The King Throws a Lavish Party The following events happened in the days of Ahasuerus.(I am referring to that Ahasuerus who used to rule over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces extending all the way from India to Ethiopia.)

“Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. If I perish, I perish!”

Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape himself with while he was sitting among the ashes.

At that time the Sovereign LORD of Heaven’s Armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth.

Is this really the kind of fasting I want? Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, bowing their heads like a reed and stretching out on sackcloth and ashes? Is this really what you call a fast, a day that is pleasing to the LORD?

So I turned my attention to the Lord God to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And throw that worthless slave into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’