Esther 2:12

12 According to the rules for women, the moment for each young woman to go to King Ahasuerus came at the end of twelve months. (She had six months of treatment with pleasant-smelling creams and six months with fragrant oils and other treatments for women.)

Esther 2:12 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 2:12

Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to King
Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the
manner of women
That were prepared in the house of the women to be presented to the king for his liking; for it seems that these virgins came in turns to him, according to the time they had been in the house; as did the wives of the kings of Persia, as Herodotus relates ^F16:

for so were the days of their purifications accomplished;
that is, in the space of twelve months, which were thus divided: to wit,

six months with oil of myrrh;
which Ben Melech interprets of musk:

and six month's with sweet odours;
the former was used to make the skin smooth and soft, and these to remove all ill scents through sweat, or any other cause:

and with other things for the purifying of women:
by bathing, rubbing, &c. and such a space of time was observed not only for the thorough purification of them, but partly was of state and grandeur, and partly that it might be a clear case they were not with child by another, before they came to the king.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 Thalia, sive, l. 3. c. 69.

Esther 2:12 In-Context

10 Esther hadn't told anyone her race and family background because Mordecai had ordered her not to.)

11 Each day found Mordecai pacing back and forth along the wall in front of the women's house to learn how Esther was doing and what they were doing with her.

12 According to the rules for women, the moment for each young woman to go to King Ahasuerus came at the end of twelve months. (She had six months of treatment with pleasant-smelling creams and six months with fragrant oils and other treatments for women.)

13 So this is how the young woman would go to the king: They gave her anything that she asked to take with her from the women's house to the palace.

14 In the evening she would go in, and the next morning she would return to the second women's house under the care of Shaashgaz. He was the king's eunuch in charge of the secondary wives. She would never go to the king again unless he was so pleased that he called for her by name.