Esther

After some time, when the anger of King Xerxes had cooled, he remembered Vashti, what she had done, and what had been decreed against her.

Then the king’s personal attendants suggested, "Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king."

"Let the king appoint officials in every province of his kingdom to bring all these beautiful young women to the harem in the fortress of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the women, and let beauty treatments be given to them."

"Then let the woman who pleases the king become queen instead of Vashti." The king was pleased with this idea and acted on it.

Now in the fortress of Susa there was a Jew named Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite.

He had been taken into exile from Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, among those captured with King Jehoiachin of Judah.

Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, also known as Esther, whom he had raised because she had no father or mother. The young woman was lovely and beautiful, and when her parents died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

When the king’s order and decree were proclaimed, many young women were brought to the fortress of Susa and placed under the care of Hegai. Esther was also taken to the royal palace and entrusted to Hegai, the guardian of the women.

She pleased him and won his favour. He immediately provided her with beauty treatments and special food, and assigned seven chosen maidservants from the palace to her. He then moved her and her maidservants to the best place in the harem.

Esther had not revealed her nationality or her family background, for Mordecai had instructed her not to say anything.

Every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.

Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics.

When she finally went to the king, she was given anything she wanted to take with her from the harem to the palace.

In the evening she went there, and in the morning she returned to a second harem, under the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go to the king again unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.

When it was Esther’s turn to go to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai, the king’s trusted eunuch, suggested. Esther won the admiration of everyone who saw her.

She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of TebS, in the seventh year of his reign.

The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she won his grace and favour more than all the other virgins. So he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Then the king gave a great banquet, known as Esther’s banquet, for all his princes and servants. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal generosity.

When the young women were gathered together a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate.

Esther had still not revealed her family background or her people, just as Mordecai had told her. She continued to follow Mordecai’s instructions, as she had done when he was raising her.

In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the entrance, became angry and plotted to assassinate King Xerxes.

Mordecai learned of the plot and told Queen Esther, who then reported it to the king in Mordecai’s name.

When the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were hanged on a gallows. All this was recorded in the book of the royal chronicles in the king's presence.