1After these words, when the rage of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.2Then the young men who served the king said, Let them seek young virgins of attractive appearance for the king.3Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them gather all the young virgins of attractive appearance to Susa the citadel, into the custody of Hegai the king's eunuch who is in charge of the women, and let their cosmetics be given to them.4Let the young woman who pleases the king become queen in place of Vashti. This proposal pleased the king, and he acted accordingly.5There was a Jewish man in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite.6He had been carried into exile from Jerusalem with the exiles who had been carried into exile with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried into exile.7Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, because she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was attractive in appearance. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.8When the king's command and edict had been proclaimed and when many young women were gathered to Susa the citadel under the custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the women.9The young woman pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her cosmetics and her special food and assigned to her seven chosen young women from the king's palace; he moved her and her attendants to the best place in the house of the women.10Esther did not reveal her people or her family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so.11Every day Mordecai walked back and forth near the courtyard of the house of the women in order to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her.12Before a young woman's turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics.13When the turn came for a young woman to go to the king, whatever she asked for was given to her to take with her from the house of the women to the king's palace.14In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he was pleased with her and summoned her by name.15When the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king's eunuch who was in charge of the women suggested; and Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her.16Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in the royal residence in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.17The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she won more favor and approval from him than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.18And the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his nobles and officials. He proclaimed a holiday throughout the provinces and distributed gifts with royal liberality.