2:1  After these things when the anger of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what he had decreed against her.

2:2  Then the king's attendants, who served him, said, "Let us seek beautiful young virgins for the king.

2:3  "Let the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the harem, into the custody of Hegai, the king's eunuch, who has charge of the women; and let their cosmetics be given them.

2:4  "Then let the young lady who pleases the king become queen in place of Vashti." And the matter pleased the king, and he did accordingly.

2:5  Now there lived at the citadel in Susa a Jew who had the name of Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite,

2:6  who had gone into exile from Jerusalem with the captives who had suffered exile with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had exiled.

2:7  He brought up Hadassah, namely Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had no father or mother. Now the young lady had much beauty of form and face, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

2:8  So it came about when the command and decree of the king became known and many young ladies gathered to the citadel of Susa into the custody of Hegai, that Esther became summoned to the king's palace into the custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women.

2:9  Now the young lady pleased him and found favor with him. So he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and food, gave her seven choice maids from the king's palace and transferred her and her maids to the best place in the harem.

2:10  Esther did not make known her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make them known.

2:11  Every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther fared.

2:12  Now when the turn of each young lady came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women--for the days of their beautification reached completion as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and the cosmetics for women--

2:13  the young lady would go in to the king in this way: anything that she desired she could have her to take with her from the harem to the king's palace.

2:14  In the evening she would go in and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch had charge of the concubines. She would not again go in to the king unless the king delighted in her and summoned her by name.

2:15  Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter, came to go in to the king, she did not request anything except what Hegai, the king's eunuch who had charge of the women, advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her.

2:16  So Esther received a summons from King Ahasuerus to his royal palace in the tenth month which we mark as the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

2:17  The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

2:18  Then the king gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his princes and his servants; he also made a holiday for the provinces and gave gifts according to the king's bounty.

2:19  When the virgins gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat at the king's gate.

2:20  Esther had not yet made known her kindred or her people, even as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her as she had done when under his care.

2:21  In those days, while Mordecai sat at the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's officials from those who guarded the door, became angry and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.

2:22  But the plot became known to Mordecai and he told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name.

2:23  Now when the officials investigated the plot and found them guilty, the officials hanged them both on a gallows; and it appeared in the Book of the Chronicles in the king's presence.