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 in charge of the concubines. She would not go back to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was called by name.
15. When the turn came near for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as a daughter, to go to the king, she did not ask anything except what Hegai the eunuch of the king who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther carried favor in the eyes of everyone that saw her.
16. Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his palace, in the tenth month that is Tebeth in the seventh year of his reign.
17. And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won his favor and loyalty more than all the virgins, so he put a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.
18. And the king gave a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his officials and servants. And he granted a tax amnesty to the provinces and he gave gifts with royal liberality.
19. When the virgins were gathered a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the gate of the king.
20. Esther had not made known her family and her people, just as Mordecai had instructed her; for Esther did what Mordecai told her, just as when she was brought up by him.
21. In those days Mordecai was sitting at the gate of the king. Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs from the keepers of the threshold, became angry and they conspired to assassinate King Ahasuerus.