Mordecai sent back this answer to Esther: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My attendants and I will also fast. When this is done, even though it is against the law, yet I will go to the king. And if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:13-16 Adapted

The scene is this. Esther had been raised by her cousin Mordecai. In spite of being Jewish, a fact she had kept closely guarded, she had become a favored queen of King Xerxes (sometimes “Ahasuerus”) of Persia. Haman, a power-hungry and evil member of the King’s court, had successfully plotted to have the King issue an edict that all Jews in the land be killed. Mordecai was devastated but quickly sent a message to Queen Esther beseeching her help to stop the massacre.

Esther recognized that she must take action on behalf of her people. Beginning with a time of fasting, she would go and see the King: “I will go to the king, even though it is against the law”, she determined “yet I will go even if I perish.”

And yet another story ends favorably for the Jewish people. King Xerxes came to understand that his life was once save by Mordecai, and that Haman’s plot was evil. Haman was executed and the Jews were victorious.

Note: “Even though” is a conjunction used to introduce a contrast or unexpected situation between two clauses.