Open English Translation EST Chapter 2

2 Some time later when King Ahasuerus no longer felt so angry, he started to miss Vashti. But when she’d disobeyed his command, he had made a decree that she could never come into his presence again. 2 So some of the young men who served the king suggested to him, “Your majesty, you should get a new wife for yourself. You could tell your servants to look for young virgins who are very beautiful. 3 You could assign officers in each province of your empire to bring every virgin who is very beautiful here to your capital city of Shushan. They could stay in the harem for virgins under the custody of Hegai, the castrated royal guardian who takes care of the young women who live there and he could arrange for them to receive beauty treatments. 4 Then you could decide which young woman you like best and then make her queen instead of Vashti.”

The king liked what they suggested, so he did it.

5 At that time, there was a Jewish man named Mordekai living in the capital city of Shushan. (He was from the tribe of Benjamin: his father was Jair, his grandfather was Shimei, and his great-grandfather was Kish 6 who’d been taken away from Jerusalem and led to Babylon when King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon had exiled Jeconiah, the king of Judah, along with many of his people.)[ref] 7 Now Mordekai was taking care of his cousin, who was an orphan. When her father and mother had died, Mordekai had adopted her as his own daughter. Her Hebrew name was Hadassah, and her Persian name was Esther. Esther was now a young woman and she was exceptionally attractive.

8 So when the king’s command and decree became known, many young women were being brought into the capital city of Shushan and placed under Hegai’s charge, and this is what happened to Esther. (Hegai was the overseer of the women.) 9 Hegai was very impressed with Esther, and he treated her favourably. He quickly arranged for Esther to receive her beauty treatments and her allotment of food, as well as choosing seven female servants from the king’s palace and assigning them to be her personal attendants. He also moved Esther and her attendants to the best rooms in the harem for virgins. 10 (Esther hadn’t revealed her family ties or her Jewishness to anyone, because Mordekai had instructed her not to.)

11 Every day Mordekai would walk around in front of the courtyard of the women’s harem to find out from others how Esther was doing and how she was being treated.

12 Each young woman would get twelve months of beauty treatment according to the Persian law for women—there would be six months of applying oil of myrrh, then six months of perfumes and other lotions designed for women. Then their turn would come, one at a time, to be taken to King Ahasuerus. 13 The young woman was allowed to take whatever she wanted from the harem when she went to the king’s house. 14 She’d be taken across in the evening, and in the morning she’d be led out to the other harem which was for the concubines. (That harem was overseen by Shaashgaz, another castrated royal guardian.) The women taken there wouldn’t go again to the king’s house unless he had especially liked them and summoned her back by name.

15 Now Esther was the daughter of Mordekai’s uncle, Abihail, from whom Mordekai had adopted her as his own daughter. When it was her turn to go to the king, she didn’t ask for anything other than what Hegai, the king’s trusted official in charge of the harem, had advised, and everyone who saw Esther liked her. 16 So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus at his royal palace in January, in the seventh year of his reign, 17 and the king loved Esther more than any of the other women. He treated her more kindly and more favourably than any of the other young women who had become his concubines. He put a royal crown on her head and made her the new queen to replace Vashti. 18 Then the king hosted a large celebration and invited all his officials and servants to a feast to celebrate Esther becoming queen. He proclaimed that this would be a time to celebrate for people in all of the provinces of his empire when they wouldn’t have to pay taxes, and he gave many generous gifts.

19 Later on, King Ahasuerus had his officers bring more virgins to Shushan. During this time, Mordekai had been given a position by the king so he sat there at the king’s gate. 20 Esther had still not told anyone that she was Jewish because Mordekai had warned her not to tell anyone. What’s more, she continued to follow all of Mordekai’s instructions, just as she had done when she was still under his guardianship.

21 One day when Mordekai was on duty at the king’s gate, two of the king’s guards who protected the doorway to the king’s private rooms became angry with the king and so they planned to assassinate King Ahasuerus. (Their names were Bigthan and Teresh.) 22 But when Mordekai heard what they were planning, he told Queen Esther about it and she told the king, explaining that Mordekai had given her the information. 23 When the matter was investigated and the facts discovered, both conspirators were impaled on sharpened wooden poles, and in the presence of the king, the incident was recorded in the royal record of events.