Comp. on the last words, Gen 27:34. The combination of אפר with שׂק ילבּשׁ is an abbreviation for: put on a hairy garment and spread ashes upon his head, in sign of deep grief; comp. Dan 9:3; Job 2:12, and elsewhere.
Verse 2
And came even before the king's gate, i.e., according to Est 4:6, the open space before the entrance to the royal palace; for none might enter wearing mourning. לבוא אין, there is no entering, i.e., none may enter; comp. Ewald, §321, c.
Verse 3
Also in every province whither the king's decree arrived, there arose a great mourning among the Jews. אשׁר מקום is an adverbial accusat. loci in apposition to בּכל־מדינה: in every place to which the word of the king and his decree reached, i.e., arrived. “Sackcloth and ashes were spread for many,” i.e., many sat in hairy garments upon the earth, where ashes had been spread; comp. Isa 58:5. The meaning is: All the Jews broke out into mourning, weeping, and lamentation, while many manifested their grief in the manner above described.
Verse 4
The matter was made known to Esther by her maids and eunuchs, i.e., by her attendants. The Chethiv תּבואינה does not elsewhere occur after ו consecutive, hence the substitution of the Keri תּבואנה. The object of יגּידוּ: what they told her, is evidently, from what follows, the circumstance of Mordochai's appearance in deep mourning before the gate of the palace. On receiving this information the queen fell into convulsive grief (תּתחלחל, an intensive form of חוּל, to be seized with painful grief), and sent to Mordochai raiment to put on instead of his sackcloth, evidently for the purpose of enabling him to enter the palace and give her the particulars of what had happened. But Mordochai did not accept the raiment.
Verses 5-7
Then Esther sent Hatach, one of the eunuchs whom the king had set before her, i.e., appointed to attend her, to Mordochai to learn ”what this, and why this,” i.e., what was the meaning and the cause of his thus going about in mourning. When Hatach came forth to him in the open place of the city before the king's gate, Mordochai told him all that had happened, and the amount of the money which Haman had promised to weigh to the king's treasures
