1Also queen Esther fled [or flew] to the Lord, and dreaded the peril, that nighed.

2And when she had put away the king’s clothes that pertained to the queen, she took clothes covenable to weepings and mourning; and for diverse ointments, she filled her head with ashes and drit, or vile power, or dust, and she meeked her body with fastings; and with braiding, or twisting, [or tearing, or pulling] away of her hair, she filled all places, in which she was wont to be glad;

3and she besought [or prayed] the Lord God of Israel, and said, My Lord, which alone art our King, help me a woman left alone, and of whom none other helper is except thee, [or My Lord, that art king alone, help me solitary, and of whom save thee is none other helper];

4my peril is in my hands.

5I have heard of my father, that thou, Lord, hast taken away Israel from all folks [or shouldest have taken Israel from all Gentiles], and our fathers from all their greater men before, that thou shouldest wield an everlasting heritage; and thou hast done to them, as thou hast spoken, or promised.

6We have sinned in thy sight, and therefore thou hast betaken us into the hands of our enemies;

7for we worshipped the gods of them. Lord, thou art just, [or Rightwise thou art, Lord];

8and now it sufficeth not to them, that they oppress us with hardest servage, but they reckon the strength of their hands to the power of idols [or maumets],

9and therefore they will change thy behests, and do away thine heritage, and close the mouths of men praising thee, and quench the glory of thy temple and [of thine] altar,

10that they open the mouths of heathen men/and they will open the mouths of heathen men, and praise the strength of idols, and preach a fleshly king without end. [that they open the mouths of Gentiles, and praise the strength of maumets, and preach a fleshly king into evermore.]

11Lord, give thou not thy king’s rod to them, that be nought, lest they laugh at our falling; but turn thou the counsel of them upon themselves, and destroy thou him, that began to be cruel against us.

12Lord, have thou mind, and show thee to us in the time of [our] tribulation; and, Lord, King of gods, and King of all power, give thou trust to me, [or and give to me trust, Lord, king of Jews, and of all power];

13give thou a word well addressed, [or a seemly word], in my mouth in the sight of the lion Ahasuerus ¹, and turn over his heart into the hatred of our enemy, that both he perish, and other men that consented to him.

14But deliver us in thine hand, and help me, having none other help but thee,

15Lord, that hast the knowing of all things; and Lord, thou knowest that I hate the glory of wicked men, and that I loathe the bed of uncircumcised men, and of each alien [or of all heathen].

16Lord, thou knowest my frailty and my need, that I hold abominable [or loathe] the sign of my pride and of my glory, which is on mine head in the days of my showing, and that I loathe it as the cloth of a woman having unclean blood [or in the flux of blood], and I bear not, or use it, in the days of my stillness [or my silence],

17and that I ate not in the board of Haman, neither the feast of the king pleased me, and I drank not the wine of moist sacrifices,

18and that thine handmaid was never glad, since I was translated hither till into present day, but in thee, Lord God of Abraham.

19A! strong God above all, hear thou the voice of them, that have none other hope than thee, and deliver thou us from the hands of wicked men, and deliver thou me from my dread.