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.