8
When the king had issued his new proclamation, many young women were being brought to Susa, and Esther was among them. She too was put in the royal palace in the care of Hegai, who had charge of the harem.
9
Hegai liked Esther, and she won his favor. He lost no time in beginning her beauty treatment of massage and special diet. He assigned seven young women specially chosen from the royal palace to serve her, and he treated her and her servants well.
10
Now, on the advice of Mordecai, Esther had kept secret the fact that she was Jewish.
11
Every day Mordecai would walk back and forth in front of the courtyard of the harem, watching to see what was going to happen to her.
12
The regular beauty treatment for the young women lasted a year: massages with oil of myrrh for six months and with beauty creams and cosmetics for six more.
13
After that, each young woman was handed over to the person appointed to conduct her from the harem to the palace, and she was taken to the king.
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 Hegai, the eunuch in charge. She would not go to the king again unless he asked for her by name.
15
The time came for Esther, the daughter of Aminadab the uncle of Mordecai, to go to the king. She had done everything that Hegai had advised, and she was admired by everyone who saw her.
16
So in Xerxes' seventh year as king, in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, she was brought to the king.
17
He fell in love with Esther, who pleased him more than any of the others, and he placed the queen's crown on her head.
18
Then the king gave a week-long banquet for all his advisers and administrators to celebrate his marriage to Esther. He also granted a reduction of taxes for the whole empire.