Esther - Chapter 2

1. After these events, when King Ahasuerus's fury subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what had been decreed upon her.

2. And the king's young men, his servants, said, "Let them seek for the king young maidens of comely appearance.

3. And let the king appoint commissioners to all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them gather every young maiden of comely appearance to Shushan the capital, to the house of the women, to the custody of Hege, the king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, and let their ointments be given them.

4. And let the maiden who pleases the king reign instead of Vashti." And the matter pleased the king, and he did so.

5. There was a Judean man in Shushan the capital, whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair the son of Shimei the son of Kish, a Benjamite,

6. who had been exiled from Jerusalem with the exile that was exiled with Jeconiah, king of Judah, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had exiled.

7. And he had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was of comely form and of comely appearance, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her to himself for a daughter.

8. And it came to pass, when the king's order and his decree were heard, and when many maidens were gathered to Shushan the capital, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken to the king's house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.

9. And the maiden pleased him, and she won his favor, and he hastened her ointments and her portions to give [them] to her, and the seven maidens fitting to give her from the king's house, and he changed her and her maidens to the best [portions in] the house of the women.

10. Esther did not reveal her nationality or her lineage, for Mordecai had ordered her not to reveal it.

11. And every day, Mordecai would walk about in front of the court of the house of the women, to learn of Esther's welfare and what would be done to her.

12. And when each maiden's turn arrived to go to King Ahasuerus, after having been treated according to the practice prescribed for the women, for twelve months, for so were the days of their ointments completed, six months with myrrh oil, and six months with perfumes, and with the ointments of the women.

13. Then with this the maiden would come to the king; whatever she would request would be given to her to come with her from the house of the women to the king's house.

14. In the evening she would go, and in the morning she would return to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, the guard of the concubines; she would no longer come to the king unless the king wanted her, and she was called by name.

15. Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail, Mordecai's uncle, who had taken her for a daughter, came to go in to the king, she requested nothing, except what Hegai the king's chamberlain, the guard of the women, would say, and Esther obtained grace in the eyes of all who beheld her.

16. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

17. And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor before him more than all the maidens, and he placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

18. And the king made a great banquet for all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast, and he granted a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to the bounty of the king.

19. And when the maidens were gathered a second time, and Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate

20. Esther would not tell her lineage or her nationality, as Mordecai had commanded her, for Esther kept Mordecai's orders as she had when she was raised by him.

21. In those days, when Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's chamberlains, of the guards of the threshold, became angry and sought to lay a hand on King Ahasuerus.

22. And the matter became known to Mordecai, and he told [it] to Queen Esther, and Esther told [it] to the king in Mordecai's name.

23. And the matter was investigated and found [to be so], and they were both hanged on a gallows, and it was written in the diary [that was read] before the king.