6
who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah, king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away.
7
And he had brought up Hadassah, that
is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid
was fair and beautiful; and as her father and mother were dead, Mordecai had taken her for his own daughter.
8
So it came to pass, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan, the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king’s house to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.
9
And the maiden pleased him, and she found mercy before him; and he speedily gave her that which was necessary for purification and her rations, and seven maidens,
which were meet to be given her out of the king’s house; and he moved her and her maids into the best
place of the house of the women.
10
Esther had not declared her people nor her birth, for Mordecai had charged her that she should not declare
it.
11
And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women’s house to know the peace of Esther and what was done with her.
12
Now when each maid’s turn was come to go in to King Ahasuerus, after she had been twelve months according to the law
regarding the women (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished,
that is, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with aromatic odours and oils for women),
13
then thus came
each maiden unto the king; whatever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house.
14
In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who kept the concubines; she came in unto the king no more, unless the king delighted in her and called for her 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 required nothing but what Hegai, the king’s eunuch, the keeper of the women, appointed. And Esther obtained grace in the sight of all those that looked upon her.
16
So Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which
is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.