Esther 2:12

12 The regular beauty treatment for the women lasted a year - massages with oil of myrrh for six months and with oil of balsam for six more. After that, each woman would be taken in turn to King Xerxes.

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 Now, on the advice of Mordecai, Esther had kept it secret that she was Jewish.

11 Every day Mordecai would walk back and forth in front of the courtyard of the harem, in order to find out how she was getting along and what was going to happen to her.

12 The regular beauty treatment for the women lasted a year - massages with oil of myrrh for six months and with oil of balsam for six more. After that, each woman would be taken in turn to King Xerxes.

13 When she went from the harem to the palace, she could wear whatever she wanted.

14 She would go there in the evening, and the next morning she would be taken to another harem and put in the care of Shaashgaz, the eunuch in charge of the king's concubines. She would not go to the king again unless he liked her enough to ask for her by name.