Mordecai rent his clothes. Compare Ezra 9:3, Ezra 9:5 with the comment. The meaning of the act was well understood by the Persians. Put on sackcloth with ashes. So Daniel (Daniel 9:3), and the king of Nineveh (Jonah 3:6).
Either act by itself was a sign of deep grief; both combined betokened the deepest grief possible. And went out into the midst of the city. The palace was not to be saddened by private griefs (see the next verse).
Mordecai, therefore, having assumed the outward signs of extreme sorrow, quitted the palace, and entered the streets of the town. There, overcome by his feelings, he vented them, as Asiatics are wont to do, in loud and piercing cries (comp.