Esther 2:14

14 In the evening she would go and in the morning she would return to the {second harem} {under the care of} Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch in charge of the concubines. She would not go back to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was called by name.

Esther 2:14 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 2:14

In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into
the second house of the women
Or the other apartment of the house of the women, where were kept those the king had made his concubines or secondary wives. Aben Ezra interprets it the second time, and so the Targum by "again":

to the custody of Shaashgaz the king's chamberlain, which kept the
concubines;
of which the kings of Persia had a great number; Darius, whom Alexander conquered, had three hundred and sixty ^F17:

she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her,
and that she was called by name;
but remained shut up in the house, and might not lie with, nor be married to, another man.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F17 Curt. Hist. l. 3. c. 3.

Esther 2:14 In-Context

12 When the turn came for each girl to go to King Ahasuerus, after the end of twelve months of being under the regulations of the women--for the days of their beauty treatments had to be filled, six months with the oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and women's cosmetics--

13 in this way, the girl goes to the king and all that she asks is given to her {to take} with her from the {harem} to the {king's palace}.

14 In the evening she would go and in the morning she would return to the {second harem} {under the care of} Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch in charge of the concubines. She would not go back to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was called by name.

15 When the turn came near for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken [her] as a daughter, to go to the king, she did not ask anything except what Hegai the eunuch of the king who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther carried favor in the eyes of everyone that saw her.

16 Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his {palace}, in the tenth month that is Tebeth in the seventh year of his reign.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "second house of the women"
• [b]. Literally "to the hand of"