Esther 2:8

8 So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree were heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto the palace at Shushan under the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king's house into the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.

Esther 2:8 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 2:8

So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and decree was
heard
In the several provinces of his kingdom:

and when many maidens were gathered unto Shushan the palace, to the
custody of Hegai;
Josephus ^F15 says, there were gathered to the number of four hundred:

that Esther was brought also unto the king's house, to the custody of
Hegai, the keeper of the women:
by force, as Aben Ezra and the former Targum, and so the word is sometimes used.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F15 Ibid. (Antiqu. l. 11. c. 6. sect. 2.)

Esther 2:8 In-Context

6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.

7 And he brought up Hadassah (that is, Esther), his uncle's daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful, whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.

8 So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree were heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto the palace at Shushan under the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also unto the king's house into the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.

9 And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens who were meet to be given to her out of the king's house; and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place in the house of the women.

10 Esther had not shown her people nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it.