And Esther the queen also, being in fear of the imminent danger, fled unto the Lord.

And she laid aside her royal apparel, and put on garments of mourning and lamentation; and instead of various perfumes, she cast ashes and dung upon her head; and she humbled her body with fasting; and all the places wherein she was wont to rejoice, she filled with the hair of her head.

And she supplicated the Lord God of Israel, saying, O Lord, who alone art our King, help me, who am desolate and have none other helper but Thee:

For my peril is in my hands.

I have heard from my father that Thou, O Lord, didst take Israel from among all nations, and our fathers from among all their predecessors, to be Thine everlasting inheritance, and Thou hast dealt with them as Thou didst say.

We have sinned before Thee, and therefore hast Thou delivered us into the hands of our enemies,

Because we worshipped their gods: and Thou, O Lord, art righteous.

And now, it sufficeth them not that they have held us in grievous servitude, but since they ascribe the strength of their hands unto their idols,

They endeavor to annul Thy promises, and to destroy Thine inheritance, and to stop the mouths of those who praise Thee, and to extinguish the glory of Thy temple and Thy altar;

To open the mouths of the nations, that they may praise the might of idols, and magnify a human king forever.

Deliver not, O Lord, Thy scepter unto them that are as nothing, lest they laugh at our destruction: but turn their counsel upon their own heads, and destroy him that began to bear hard upon us.

Remember us, O Lord, and make Thyself known in the time of our tribulation, and give me confidence, O Lord, King of all gods, and King of all power.

Put a well-ordered speech in my mouth before that lion, and turn his heart to hate our adversary, that he and all that conspire with him may perish.

But deliver us with Thy hand, and help me, who am desolate and have none other helper but Thee, O Lord, who knowest all things.

Thou knowest that I abhor the glory of the unrighteous, and detest the bed of the uncircumcised and all foreigners.

And Thou knowest my necessity, and that I detest the symbol of my pomp and glory, which I bear upon my head in the days of my public appearance, and I hate it as a polluted rag, and I wear it not in the days of my quietness.

And that I have not eaten at Haman's table, nor delighted in the king's feast, nor drunk the wine of libations.

Neither have I, Thy handmaid, rejoiced, since I was brought hither until now, save in Thee, O Lord God of Abraham.

O God, mighty over all, hearken unto the voices of them that have no hope but in Thee, and deliver us from the hands of the wicked, and deliver me from my fear.