10. Esther did not reveal her ethnic background or her birthplace, because Mordecai had ordered her not to.
11. Every day Mordecai took a walk in front of the harem’s courtyard to learn how Esther was doing and to see what was happening to her.
12. During the year before each young woman’s turn to go to King Ahasuerus, the harem regulation required her to receive beauty treatments with oil of myrrh for six months and then with perfumes and cosmetics for another six months.
13. When the young woman would go to the king, she was given whatever she requested to take with her from the harem to the palace.
14. She would go in the evening, and in the morning she would return to a second harem under the supervision of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch in charge of the concubines. She never went to the king again, unless he desired her and summoned her by name.
15. Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had adopted her as his own daughter. When her turn came to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s trusted official in charge of the harem, suggested. Esther won approval in the sight of everyone who saw her.
16. She was taken to King Ahasuerus in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
17. The king loved Esther more than all the other women. She won more favor and approval from him than did any of the other young women. He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti.
18. The king held a great banquet for all his officials and staff. It was Esther’s banquet. He freed his provinces from tax payments and gave gifts worthy of the king’s bounty.
19. When the young women were assembled together for a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate.
20. Esther still had not revealed her birthplace or her ethnic background, as Mordecai had directed. She obeyed Mordecai’s orders, as she always had while he raised her.
21. During those days while Mordecai was sitting at the King’s Gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two eunuchs who guarded the king’s entrance, became infuriated and planned to assassinate King Ahasuerus.
22. When Mordecai learned of the plot, he reported it to Queen Esther, and she told the king on Mordecai’s behalf.
23. When the report was investigated and verified, both men were hanged on the gallows. This event was recorded in the Historical Record in the king’s presence.