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Esther / Esther Chosen as Queen
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Esther Chosen as Queen

Esther 2:1-18

2
Chapter 2
1 After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. 2 And his young men, the king's servants, said, "Let them seek young women for the king, beautiful virgins." 3 The king appointed overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom. They gathered all the young virgin women of good appearance to the citadel of Susa, to the house of the women, into the hand of Hegai the king's eunuch, keeper of the women. And they gave them their cosmetics. 4 And the girl who is good in the eyes of the king shall reign in place of Vashti. And the word was good in the eyes of the king, and he did so. 5 A man, a Jew, was in Susa the citadel, and his name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite man. 6 who was exiled from Jerusalem with the exile that you exiled with Jehoiachin king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon exiled. 7 Mordecai was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman was beautiful in form and lovely, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. 8 When the king's word and his decree were heard and many young women were gathered to the citadel of Susa to the hand of Hegai, Esther was taken to the king's house to the hand of Hegai, keeper of the women. 9 And the young woman was good in his eyes and she bore steadfast love before him. And he hurried to give her her cosmetics and her portion and the seven select young women from the king's house, and he changed her and her young women to the best house of the women. 10 Esther did not tell her people or her kindred her origin, because Mordecai had commanded her not to tell. 11 And every day Mordecai would walk back and forth in front of the courtyard of the house of the women to know how Esther was and what was done with her. 12 When the turn of each young woman came to go to King Ahasuerus, at the end of twelve months—for so the law of the women was, her days of purification being filled: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics of the women. 13 And in this way the young woman would come to the king. Whatever she requested would be given her to take with her from the house of the women to the house of the king. 14 In the evening she comes, and in the morning she returns to the house of the women, second, to the hand of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who keeps the concubines. She will not go again to the king unless the king delights in her and she is called by name. 15 And when the turn came for Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she requested nothing except what Hegai the king's eunuch who kept the women suggested. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her. 16 Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal house, in the tenth month—that is, the month Tebeth—in the seventh year of his reign. 17 The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she bore favor and steadfast love before him more than all the virgins. He put the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. 18 The king held a great banquet for all his officials and servants—Esther's banquet. He granted relief to the provinces and gave gifts with a royal hand.