King James Version › Esther › 2

Esther

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1 Af­ter these things, when the wrath of king Aha­suerus was ap­peased, he re­mem­bered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was de­creed against her. 2 Then said the king's ser­vants that min­is­tered unto him, Let there be fair young vir­gins sought for the king: 3 And let the king ap­point of­fi­cers in all the provinces of his king­dom, that they may gath­er to­geth­er all the fair young vir­gins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the wom­en, unto the cus­tody of Hege the king's cham­ber­lain, keep­er of the wom­en; and let their things for pu­rifi­ca­tion be giv­en them: 4 And let the maid­en which pleaseth the king be queen in­stead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so. 5 Now in Shushan the palace there was a cer­tain Jew, whose name was Morde­cai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Ben­jamite; 6 Who had been car­ried away from Jerusalem with the cap­tiv­i­ty which 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 was heard, and when many maid­ens were gath­ered to­geth­er unto Shushan the palace, to the cus­tody of Hegai, that Es­ther was brought also unto the king's house, to the cus­tody of Hegai, keep­er of the wom­en. 9 And the maid­en pleased him, and she ob­tained kind­ness of him; and he speed­i­ly gave her her things for pu­rifi­ca­tion, with such things as be­longed to her, and sev­en maid­ens, which were meet to be giv­en her, out of the king's house: and he pre­ferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the wom­en. 10 Es­ther had not shewed her peo­ple nor her kin­dred: for Morde­cai had charged her that she should not shew it. 11 And Morde­cai walked ev­ery day be­fore the court of the women's house, to know how Es­ther did, and what should be­come of her. 12 Now when ev­ery maid's turn was come to go in to king Aha­suerus, af­ter that she had been twelve months, ac­cord­ing to the man­ner of the wom­en, (for so were the days of their pu­rifi­ca­tions ac­com­plished, ­to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the pu­ri­fy­ing of the wom­en;) 13 Then thus came every maid­en unto the king; what­so­ev­er she de­sired was giv­en her to go with her out of the house of the wom­en unto the king's house. 14 In the evening she went, and on the mor­row she re­turned into the sec­ond house of the wom­en, to the cus­tody of Shaashgaz, the king's cham­ber­lain, which kept the con­cu­bines: she came in unto the king no more, ex­cept the king de­light­ed in her, and that she were called by name. 15 Now when the turn of Es­ther, the daugh­ter of Abi­hail the un­cle of Morde­cai, who had tak­en her for his daugh­ter, was come to go in unto the king, she re­quired noth­ing but what Hegai the king's cham­ber­lain, the keep­er of the wom­en, ap­point­ed. And Es­ther ob­tained favour in the sight of all them that looked upon her. 16 So Es­ther was tak­en unto king Aha­suerus into his house roy­al in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the sev­enth year of his reign. 17 And the king loved Es­ther above all the wom­en, and she ob­tained grace and favour in his sight more than all the vir­gins; so that he set the roy­al crown upon her head, and made her queen in­stead of Vashti. 18 Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his ser­vants, even Esther's feast; and he made a re­lease to the provinces, and gave gifts, ac­cord­ing to the state of the king. 19 And when the vir­gins were gath­ered to­geth­er the sec­ond time, then Morde­cai sat in the king's gate. 20 Es­ther had not yet shewed her kin­dred nor her peo­ple; as Morde­cai had charged her: for Es­ther did the com­mand­ment of Morde­cai, like as when she was brought up with him. 21 In those days, while Morde­cai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's cham­ber­lains, Bigth­an and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Aha­suerus. 22 And the thing was known to Morde­cai, who told it unto Es­ther the queen; and Es­ther cer­ti­fied the king thereof in Mordecai's name. 23 And when in­qui­si­tion was made of the mat­ter, it was found out; there­fore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was writ­ten in the book of the chron­i­cles be­fore the king.