The search for a new queen
1After this, when the fury of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what had been decreed against her. 2Then the king’s attendants, those who served him, said: “Let a search be made for the king — for beautiful young virgins. 3Let the king appoint officers in every province of his kingdom to gather every beautiful young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the women’s quarters, under the charge of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women; and let them be given their cosmetics. 4And let the young woman who pleases the king become queen in place of Vashti.” The proposal pleased the king, and he did so. 5In the citadel of Susa there was a Jewish man named Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite, 6who had been exiled from Jerusalem among the captives carried off with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took into exile. 7He was raising Hadassah — that is, Esther — his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was beautiful in form and lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. 8When the king’s word and his decree were proclaimed and many young women were gathered to the citadel of Susa under the charge of Hegai, Esther too was taken into the king’s house, under the charge of Hegai, keeper of the women. 9The young woman pleased him and won his kindness. He quickly provided her cosmetics and her portions of food, and the seven chosen maids from the king’s house; and he moved her and her maids to the best place in the women’s quarters. 10Esther had not disclosed her people or her family, because Mordecai had ordered her not to disclose it. 11Day after day Mordecai walked in front of the courtyard of the women’s quarters, to learn how Esther was and what was being done with her. 12Each young woman’s turn came to go to King Ahasuerus at the end of twelve months under the law governing the women; for that was how the days of their beautifying were completed — six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes and the cosmetics of women. 13This is how the young woman would go to the king: whatever she asked for was given her to take with her from the women’s quarters to the king’s house. 14In the evening she went in, and in the morning she returned to a second women’s quarters, under the charge of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the concubines. She did not go to the king again unless the king desired her and she was summoned by name.
Esther becomes queen
15When the turn came for Esther — daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter — to go to the king, she asked for nothing beyond what Hegai, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women, advised. And Esther won favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her. 16Esther was brought to King Ahasuerus at his royal residence in the tenth month — the month of Tebeth — during the seventh year of his reign. 17The king loved Esther more than all the women; she won favor and kindness before him more than all the virgins. He set the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. 18Then the king gave a great banquet for all his officials and his servants — the banquet of Esther. He granted the provinces a respite and distributed gifts with a king’s liberality. 19When the virgins were gathered a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 20Esther still had not disclosed her family or her people, just as Mordecai had ordered her; she went on carrying out Mordecai’s word as she had when she was under his care. 21In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the threshold, grew angry and plotted to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 22The matter came to Mordecai’s knowledge, and he told Queen Esther, and Esther reported it to the king in Mordecai’s name. 23The matter was investigated and found to be true, and the two of them were hanged on a pole. It was recorded in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence.
