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The Choice of Virgins for the Position of Queen
v. 1. After these things, when the wrath of King Aliasuerus was appeased, when the excitement attending the banquet and the affair of the queen's insubordination had subsided, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her, his brooding over the matter tending to make him melancholy and causing the king's counselors to suggest a course of procedure to him and to divert a threatening danger.
v. 2. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king, the requirements being youth, beauty, and virginity;
v. 3. and let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, a matter easy to perform with the extensive Persian post system, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan, the palace, to the house of the women, the apartments set apart for the royal harem, unto the custody of Hege (or Hegai), the king's chamberlain, the chief eunuch, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them, which, including cleansing and anointing with precious oils and perfumes, extended over some time;
v. 4. and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing, the suggestion as made,pleased the king; and he did so.
v. 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, of the lineage of King Saul, apparently holding some office in the court of the Persian king,
v. 6. who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah (or Jehoiachin), king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away, that is, his house had been carried into exile at that time, about 130 years before, Mordecai himself having been born in Babylonia.
v. 7. And he brought up, nourished and reared, Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter; although her cousin, he became her foster-father and guardian, since he was evidently very much older than she; for she had neither father nor mother, she was a full orphan, and the maid was fair and beautiful, both in face and form;whom Mardecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter, taking the place of a full parent toward her.
v. 8. So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his decree was heard, that concerning the selection of virgins for the position of queen, 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, especially the virgins included in this experiment.
v. 9. And the maiden pleased him, she immediately gained the good will of this chief eunuch, and she obtained kindness of him, found grace and favor before him; and he speedily gave her things for purification, all the cosmetics required to enhance her beauty, with such things as belonged to her, especially portions of wholesome food, for a good diet was very essential for the purpose of the king, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king's house, as her servants and companions; and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women, assigned the best apartments to her and her slave-girls.
v. 10. Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred; for Mordecal, with a shrewdness which had the advantages of Esther in mind at all times, had charged her that she should not show it, she should not reveal her nationality.
v. 11. And Mordecal walked every day before the court of the women's house, as near the royal harem as he dared to go, to know how Esther did and what should become of her, ever solicitous of her welfare.
v. 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, as custom and etiquette demanded, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, this massaging intended for the purpose of bringing out suppleness and grace, and six months with sweet odors, with the perfumes which the Orientals delight in,and with other things for the purifying of the women,)
v. 13. then thus came every maiden unto the king, fully prepared and ornamented to gain the king's pleasure; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house, and many had taken the opportunity to bedeck themselves with every possible ornament in order to attain to the position of queen.
v. 14. In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, the harem of the concubines,to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, the eunuch in charge of these apartments, 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. In the entire narrative the vanity and nothingness of this world's goods, also of mere physical beauty, is brought out with great impressiveness. A lair face alone will not bring lasting happiness.