12
Now when every maid'sturn was come to go in to kingAhasuerus,after that she had been twelve*months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purificationsaccomplished, to wit, sixmonths with oil of myrrh, and sixmonths with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;)
14
In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the secondhouse of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king'schamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the kingdelighted in her, and that she were called by name.
15
Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she requirednothing but what Hegai the king'schamberlain, the keeper of the women,appointed. And Estherobtainedfavour in the sight of all them that looked upon her.
17
And the kinglovedEsther above all the women, and she obtainedgrace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royalcrown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
18
Then the kingmade a greatfeast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther'sfeast; and he made a release to the provinces, and gavegifts, according to the state of the king.
20
Esther had not yet shewed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had charged her: for Estherdid the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him.
21
In those days, while Mordecaisat in the king'sgate,two of the king'schamberlains,Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to layhand on the kingAhasuerus.