A New Queen Is Sought
With Vashti gone, young women are gathered into the king's harem by decree. Mordecai, who raised his orphaned cousin Esther, tells her to hide that she is a Jew. She wins the crown, and his report of an assassination plot is written into the royal record.
2 1Later, when King Xerxes' anger cooled, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what was decreed against her. 2The king's attendants said, "Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. 3The king should appoint officers in every province of his kingdom to gather every beautiful young virgin to the fortress of Susa, to the harem under Hegai, the king's eunuch guarding the women, and give them beauty treatments. 4Let the young woman who pleases the king reign in Vashti's place." This pleased the king, and he did so.
5In the fortress of Susa lived a Jew named Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite, 6exiled from Jerusalem among the captives taken with Judah's king Jeconiah, whom Babylon's king Nebuchadnezzar carried away. 7He was raising Hadassah—Esther—his uncle's daughter, who had no father or mother. The young woman was beautiful in form and lovely to see; when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
8When the king's command and decree were heard and many young women gathered to Susa's fortress under Hegai's care, Esther too was taken to the king's palace, under Hegai's care, keeper of the women. 9The young woman pleased him and won his favor, so he quickly gave her beauty treatments and food portions, seven select young women from the king's palace, and moved her and her maids to the best of the harem. 10Esther had not revealed her people or family, because Mordecai told her not to. 11Every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the harem courtyard to learn how Esther was and what happened to her.
12Each young woman's turn to go to King Xerxes came after twelve months of required beauty treatment: six months with oil of myrrh, six with perfumes and cosmetics. 13Each young woman went to the king this way: whatever she asked was given her to take from the harem to the king's palace. 14She went in at evening; at morning she returned to a second harem under Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch keeping the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he delighted in her and called her by name.
15When Esther's turn came—daughter of Abihail, Mordecai's uncle, who had adopted her as his own—to go to the king, she requested nothing except what Hegai, the king's eunuch guarding the women, advised. Esther won favor with all who saw her.
16Esther was taken to King Xerxes in his royal palace in the tenth month, Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. a a v16 Tebeth is the tenth month of the Hebrew calendar, roughly December–January.
17The king loved Esther more than all the women; she won his favor and approval above all the virgins. So he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
18The king held a great banquet for all his officials and servants—Esther's banquet. He proclaimed a holiday in the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.
19Now when the virgins were gathered a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate. 20Esther had not revealed her people or family, as Mordecai directed; she obeyed him just as when he raised her.
Mordecai Uncovers a Plot Against the King
21In those days, as Mordecai sat at the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two royal eunuchs guarding the doorway, grew angry and plotted to kill King Xerxes. 22But Mordecai learned of the plot and told Queen Esther, who reported it to the king in Mordecai's name. 23The matter was investigated, confirmed true, and both men were impaled on a pole. It was recorded in the book of chronicles before the king.
