Esther (#2)

Alrighty! Continuation time. If you haven't read the first of this "series," please do. It's just before this post (in case you didn't realize.)... 

The Book of Esther, Chapter 2 

    After these things when the anger of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. The king’s attendants who served him said, “Let beautiful, young virgins be sought for the king. Let him appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful, young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the harem, into the custody of Hegai (the king’s eunuch), who is in charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given them.

    “Then let the young lady who pleases the king be queen in place of Vashti.” This matter pleased the king, and he did accordingly.

    Now at the citadel in Susa there was a Jew by the name of Mordecai, the son of Jair. He had been exiled from Jerusalem with the captives who had been exiled with Jeconiah, king of Judah (whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had exiled.). Mordecai was bringing up Hadassah (that is Esther), his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. The young woman was beautiful of form and face (“Form” is referring to her figure.), and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

    When the command and decree of the king were heard and many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the custody of Hegai, Esther was taken to the king’s palace into the custody of Hegai, who was in charge of the women. Now the young lady pleased him and found favor with him. So he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and food, gave her seven choir maids from the king’s palace, and transferred her and her maids to the best place in the harem.

    Esther did not make known her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make them known. Everyday Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and how she fared (to perform in a specified way in a particular situation or over a particular period of time).

    Now when the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasureus (after the end of her twelve months under regulations for the women [regulation was six months with oil of myrrh- see http://www.dermaxime.com/myrrh.htm - and six months with spices and cosmetics]), she would go in to the king’s palace with anything that she desired to take with her from the harem. In the evening she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the custody of Shaashgaz (the king’s eunuch who was also in charge of the concubines [the mistresses]). She would not again go in to the king unless he delighted in her and she was, therefore, summoned by name.

    When the turn of Esther came to go in to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the women, advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her.

    So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his royal palace in the tenth month (the month of Tebeth) during the seventh year of his reign. The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she found favor and kindness with him (more than all the other virgins). She found so much kindness and favor with him that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king gave a great banquet- Esther’s banquet-, for all his princes and his servants; he also made a holiday for the provinces and gave gifts according to his bounty.

    Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate when the virgins were gathered together the second time. Esther had not yet made known her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her, as she had also done when he raised her. While Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh (two of the king’s officials that guarded the door) became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. But the plot became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. Once the plot was investigated and found to be true, the two men were both hanged on a gallows (tree); and it was then recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the king’s presence.