Esther 4:16

Fast ye, and pray; which was the main business, to which fasting was only a help and a handmaid. Neither eat nor drink, to wit, so as you use to do, either deliciously or plentifully. Leave off your common meals, dinners by day, and suppers at night, and eat and drink no more than mere necessity requires; that so you may give yourselves to constant and fervent prayers, for which your ordinary repasts will unfit you. For it is not likely that she would impose the burden of absolute fasting so long upon all the Jews, which very few of them were able to endure. And so the like phrase is taken Acts 27:33, where he saith, This is the fourteenth day that ye have continued fasting, having taking nothing. I also and my maidens; which she had chosen to attend upon her person, and were doubtless either of the Jewish nation, or proselyted by hers or others means to that religion. Will fast likewise; which may belong, either,

1. To the thing only, that as they did first, so she would. Or rather,

2. To the time of three days and three nights; for so she might do, though she went to the king on the third day. For the fast began at evening; and so she might continue her fast three whole nights, and two, whole days, and the greatest part of the third; a part of a day being reputed a day in the account of Scripture, and other authors; of which See Poole on "Matthew 12:40". Yea, she might fast all that day too; for it is probable she went not to the king till he had dined, when she supposed she might find him in the most mild and pleasant humour, and then returned to her apartment, where she fasted till the evening. Which is not according to the law; which is against the law now mentioned. If I perish, I perish: although my danger be great and evident, considering the expressness of that law, and the uncertainty of the king's mind, and that severity which he showed to my predecessor Vashti; yet rather than neglect my duty to God, and to his people, I will go to the king, and cast myself cheerfully and resolutely upon God's providence for my safety and success.