Esther 2
The full text of Esther 2 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her.
2 Then the king's young men who attended him said, "Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king.
3 Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in the citadel of Susa, under the care of Hegai the king's eunuch, who is in charge of the women. Let their cosmetics be given to them.
4 And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti." This pleased the king, and he did so.
5 Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite,
6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives taken with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away.
7 He was raising Hadassah—that is, Esther—his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter.
8 When the king's order and his edict were proclaimed, and many young women were gathered to the citadel of Susa under the care of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king's palace, under the care of Hegai, who had charge of the women.
9 The young woman pleased him and won his favor. He quickly provided her with cosmetics and her portion of food, along with seven chosen young women from the king's palace, and he moved her and her young women to the best place in the harem.
10 Esther had not revealed her people or her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it.
11 Every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.
12 Now when the turn came for each young woman to go to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women—for this was the prescribed period of their beautification: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and cosmetics for women—
13 when the young woman went to the king, she was given whatever she asked to take with her from the harem to the king's palace.
14 In the evening she would go, and in the morning she would return to the second harem, under the care of Shaashgaz the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go to the king again unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
15 When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his daughter, to go to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king's eunuch who was in charge of the women advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her.
16 Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
17 The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she won his grace and favor more than all the other virgins. So he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
18 Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants—"Esther's feast." He also granted a tax remission to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.
19 When the virgins were gathered together a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate.
20 Esther still had not revealed her kindred or her people, as Mordecai had commanded her. Esther obeyed Mordecai just as when she was brought up by him.
21 In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the threshold, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus.
22 But the matter became known to Mordecai, and he told Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in Mordecai's name.
23 When the matter was investigated and found to be true, both men were hanged on a pole. And it was recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king.
Translation notes (9)
- Esther 2:3a The Hebrew saris, 'eunuch', denotes a castrated court official; Persian kings entrusted the royal women to such men, a practice also attested by Herodotus. The word tamruq, translated 'cosmetics', comes from a root meaning 'to rub' and refers to the ointments of the twelve-month beautification regimen described in Esther 2:12.
- Esther 2:5a Mordecai is introduced as a Benjaminite descended from Kish. Saul, the Benjaminite king who spared the Amalekite Agag, was also son of Kish (1 Samuel 9:1), and Haman is called an Agagite in 3:1. The genealogy is deliberate: the conflict of this book replays an older one.
- Esther 2:6a The relative clause may attach to Mordecai or to his great-grandfather Kish. Since the deportation with Jeconiah occurred in 597 BCE, more than a century before the reign of Ahasuerus (Xerxes I, 486–465 BCE), many interpreters take Kish as the exile, with the genealogy telescoping the intervening generations.
- Esther 2:7a Hadassah is Hebrew for 'myrtle.' Esther is her Persian court name, most often derived from stara, 'star,' though a connection with the goddess Ishtar has also been proposed. Double naming was ordinary for Jews serving in a foreign administration (compare Daniel 1:7).
- Esther 2:12a The word rendered here as 'beautification' is tamruq (תַּמְרוּק), from a root meaning 'to rub' or 'to polish', denoting cosmetic treatments applied to the skin. The year-long regimen with shemen ha-mor, 'oil of myrrh', an aromatic resin used in perfumery, reflects the elaborate preparation customary in the Persian royal court.
- Esther 2:14a Hebrew bet hannashim sheni, 'second house of the women', designates separate quarters for those who had already spent a night with the king. Such women were now pilagshim, 'concubines', no longer eligible for other marriages yet unlikely to see the king again; hence they passed from Hegai's charge (verse 8) to that of Shaashgaz.
- Esther 2:16a Tebeth (Hebrew tevet), corresponding to December–January, is a Babylonian month name adopted by the Jews during the exile; its appearance here reflects the Persian-period setting of the book. The seventh year of Ahasuerus, identified with Xerxes I, falls in 479–478 BCE, roughly four years after Vashti's removal in his third year (Esther 1:3), an interval spanning his campaign against Greece.
- Esther 2:19a Hebrew shenit, 'a second time', is obscure, since no second levy of virgins is otherwise recorded; proposals include a fresh gathering after Esther's accession or a resumptive reference to the assembly of 2:8. Mordecai's sitting at the king's gate indicates an official post, as the gate served as the administrative and judicial center of a Persian royal city.
- Esther 2:21a Sitting at the king's gate (Hebrew yoshev besha'ar hammelekh) implies more than idle waiting; in the ancient Near East the gate was the seat of judicial and administrative business, so the phrase suggests Mordecai held an official post in the Persian bureaucracy. His position there explains his access to the palace intrigue reported in the next verse.
About this translation
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