Esther 4:1

American Standard Version (1901)

Now when Mordecai knew 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;

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וּמָרְדֳּכַ֗י יָדַע֙ אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר נַעֲשָׂ֔ה וַיִּקְרַ֤ע מָרְדֳּכַי֙ אֶת־בְּגָדָ֔יו וַיִּלְבַּ֥שׁ שַׂ֖ק וָאֵ֑פֶר וַיֵּצֵא֙ בְּת֣וֹךְ הָעִ֔יר וַיִּזְעַ֛ק זְעָקָ֥ה גְדֹלָ֖ה וּמָרָֽה׃

Transliteration

And Mordᵉḵay yāḏaʿ ʾet-all-which naʿᵃśâ, and wayyiqraʿ Mordᵉḵay ʾet-bᵉḡāḏāyw, and wayyilbaš śaq and-ʾēp̄er, and wayyēṣēʾ in-midst the-ʿîr, and wayyizʿaq zᵉʿāqâ ḡᵉḏōlâ and-mārâ.

Grammar Details

• *Mordᵉḵay*: proper noun, masculine singular - Mordecai
• *yāḏaʿ*: Qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - he knew/perceived
• *ʾet*: direct object marker
• *naʿᵃśâ*: Niphal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - it was done
• *wayyiqraʿ*: Qal imperfect with waw consecutive, 3rd masculine singular - and he tore
• *bᵉḡāḏāyw*: noun masculine plural construct with 3rd masculine singular suffix - his garments
• *wayyilbaš*: Qal imperfect with waw consecutive, 3rd masculine singular - and he put on/wore
• *śaq*: noun masculine singular - sackcloth
• *ʾēp̄er*: noun masculine singular - ashes
• *wayyēṣēʾ*: Qal imperfect with waw consecutive, 3rd masculine singular - and he went out
• *ʿîr*: noun feminine singular - city
• *wayyizʿaq*: Qal imperfect with waw consecutive, 3rd masculine singular - and he cried out
• *zᵉʿāqâ*: noun feminine singular - outcry/cry
• *ḡᵉḏōlâ*: adjective feminine singular - great/loud
• *mārâ*: adjective feminine singular - bitter

Word Meanings

• *yāḏaʿ*: knew/understood/perceived/learned
• *naʿᵃśâ*: was done/happened/occurred
• *ʾēp̄er*: ashes/dust
• *zᵉʿāqâ*: outcry/shriek/wail
• *mārâ*: bitter/grievous/sorrowful

Referenced Verses

• 2 Sam 1:11 : 11 Then David took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men that were with him:
• 2 Sam 13:19 : 19 And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went.
• Ezek 27:30-31 : 30 and shall cause their voice to be heard over thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: 31 and they shall make themselves bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning.
• Dan 9:3 : 3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
• Jonah 3:4-9 : 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
• Mic 1:8 : 8 For this will I lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches.
• Zeph 1:14 : 14 The great day of Jehovah is near, it is near and hasteth greatly, [even] the voice of the day of Jehovah; the mighty man crieth there bitterly.
• Matt 11:21 : 21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
• Acts 14:14 : 14 But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they rent their garments, and sprang forth among the multitude, crying out
• Rev 18:17-19 : 17 for in an hour so great riches is made desolate. And every shipmaster, and every one that saileth any whither, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood afar off, 18 and cried out as they looked upon the smoke of her burning, saying, What [city] is like the great city? 19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, wherein all that had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.
• Esth 3:8-9 : 8 And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from [those of] every people; neither keep they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. 9 If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those that have the charge of the [king's] business, to bring it into the king's treasuries. 10 And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. 11 And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. 12 Then were the king's scribes called in the first month, on the thirteenth day thereof; and there was written according to all that Haman commanded unto the king's satraps, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king's ring. [ 13 And letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.
• Esth 4:3 : 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.
• Job 1:20 : 20 Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped;
• Job 2:8 : 8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself therewith; and he sat among the ashes.
• Job 42:6 : 6 Wherefore I abhor [myself], And repent in dust and ashes.
• Isa 15:4 : 4 And Heshbon crieth out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembleth within him.
• Isa 22:4 : 4 Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
• Isa 58:5 : 5 Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah?
• Ezek 21:6 : 6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man; with the breaking of thy loins and with bitterness shalt thou sigh before their eyes.
• Gen 27:34 : 34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
• Josh 7:6 : 6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of Jehovah until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads.