Esther 4:1-3

BSB(i) 1 When Mordecai learned of all that had happened, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly. 2 But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering that gate. 3 In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.