1 After these events, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered what Vashti had done and what had been decreed against her. 2 Then the king’s pages who waited upon him said, “Let beautiful young girls be sought for the king, 3 and let the king appoint commissioners to all the provinces of his kingdom to gather them all to Susa the royal residence; let them be brought into the women’s quarters under the custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who has charge of the women. Then give them what is needed to make them beautiful, 4 and let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” The proposal pleased the king and he did so.
5 There was in Susa the royal residence a certain Jew named Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjamite. (Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem with the exiles who were deported with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon took captive.) 7 Mordecai had adopted Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The girl was shapely and beautiful; and after her father and mother died, Mordecai adopted her.
8 So when the king’s command and decree were known, and when many girls were gathered together to Susa the royal residence under the custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and placed under the custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. 9 The girl pleased him and gained his favor, so that he quickly gave her what she needed to enhance her beauty and her allowance of food and the seven maids selected from the king’s household. He also transferred her and her maids to the best place in the women’s quarters. 10 Esther had not told her people nor her descent, for Mordecai had ordered her not to; 11 but every day Mordecai used to walk in front of the court of the women’s quarters to inquire after Esther’s health and what had been done with her.
12 The girls were prepared for meeting King Ahasuerus for twelve months: six months being treated with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics. After the twelve months, 13 each girl went in to the king. She was allowed to take with her whatever she wished from the women’s quarters, 14 and would enter the palace in the evening and return the next morning to another part of the women’s quarters under the care of the king’s eunuch Shaashgaz who was in charge of concubines. She would not go to the king again unless he desired her and summoned her by name. 15 When it was the turn of Esther (the girl adopted by Mordecai, daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go in to the king, she only took with her those things that Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the women, had advised her to take. Esther was liked by all who saw her. 16 So when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, 17 he loved her more than all the other women, and she became his favorite and won his affection, so that he placed the royal turban on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king gave a great feast to all his officials and courtiers in honor of Esther, and he remitted the taxes of the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.
19 And Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, 20 and Esther had not revealed her people or descent because she obeyed him still as she had when he was bringing her up.
21 In those days while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, two of the royal court attendants, Bigthan and Teresh, who guarded the entrance of the palace, became enraged and attempted to kill King Ahasuerus. 22 But Mordecai learned of the conspiracy and disclosed it to Queen Esther, and she told the king in Mordecai’s name. 23 When the affair was investigated and the facts discovered, the conspirators were both hanged on the gallows; and the incident was recorded in the daily record of events that was kept before the king.