Esther 2

1 After these things the king's anger cooled, and he spoke of Vashti no more — though he remembered what she had said, and how he had condemned her. 2 Then the king's servants said, “Let a search be made for the king for young virgins, untouched and beautiful. 3 “Let the king appoint local officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them choose out beautiful young virgins and bring them to the city of Susa, to the house of the women, to be handed over to the king's eunuch who keeps the women; and let them be given their beauty ointments and everything else they need. 4 “And the woman who pleases the king shall be queen in place of Vashti.” The proposal pleased the king, and he did so.

5 Now there was a Jew in the city of Susa whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, 6 a captive from Jerusalem, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried into captivity. 7 He had a foster child, the daughter of Amminadab his father's brother, and her name was Esther. When her parents died, he had brought her up to be a wife for himself; and the girl was beautiful. [a]

8 So when the king's decree was proclaimed, many girls were gathered into the city of Susa and placed under the charge of Hegai; and Esther too was brought to Hegai, the keeper of the women. [b] 9 The girl pleased him, and she found favor before him, and he moved quickly to give her her beauty ointments and her share of provisions, along with the seven maids assigned to her from the king's house; and he treated her and her maids well in the house of the women. 10 But Esther did not reveal her people or her homeland, for Mordecai had ordered her to tell no one. 11 And every day Mordecai would walk along the courtyard of the women's house, watching to see how it would go with Esther.

12 Now a girl's turn to go in to the king came when she had completed twelve months, for that is how long the days of their preparation take: six months being anointed with oil of myrrh, and six months with the spices and the women's ointments. 13 Then she goes in to the king, and whatever she names is handed to her to take with her from the house of the women into the king's palace. 14 She enters in the evening, and in the morning she withdraws to the second house of the women, where Hegai the king's eunuch is keeper of the women; and she does not go in to the king again unless she is called by name. [c]

15 When the time came for Esther, the daughter of Amminadab the brother of Mordecai's father, to go in to the king, she set aside nothing that the eunuch who kept the women had charged her; for Esther found favor with all who looked at her. 16 So Esther went in to King Artaxerxes in the twelfth month, which is Adar, in the seventh year of his reign. [d] 17 And the king loved Esther. She found favor beyond all the other virgins, and he set the queen's diadem on her head. 18 Then the king held a drinking feast for all his friends and his forces, seven days long, and he celebrated Esther's wedding in splendor; and he granted a release to all who were under his rule. [e]

19 And Mordecai went on serving in the court. [f] 20 Esther still had not revealed her homeland, for so Mordecai had commanded her — to fear God and to carry out his decrees, just as when she was with him; and Esther did not change her way of life. [g]

21 Now the king's two eunuchs, the chiefs of his bodyguard, were resentful that Mordecai had been advanced, and they set out to kill King Artaxerxes. [h] 22 The matter became known to Mordecai, and he disclosed it to Esther, and she laid the plot open before the king. 23 The king questioned the two eunuchs and hanged them. And he gave orders to enter the matter in the royal archives as a record, in praise of Mordecai's loyal service.