10. Esther had not made known her nationality or her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to do so.
11. And Mordecai [who was an attendant in the king's court] walked every day before the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what would become of her.
12. Now when the turn of each maiden came to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the regulations for the women had been carried out for twelve months–since this was the regular period for their beauty treatments, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet spices and perfumes and the things for the purifying of the women–
13. Then in this way the maiden came to the king: whatever she desired was given her to take with her from the harem into the king's palace.
14. In the evening she went and next day she returned into the second harem in the custody of Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She came to the king no more unless the king delighted in her and she was called for by name.
15. Now when the turn for Esther the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his own daughter, had come to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king's attendant, the keeper of the women, suggested. And Esther won favor in the sight of all who saw her.
16. So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
17. And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the maidens, so that 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 princes and his servants, Esther's feast; and he gave a holiday [or a lessening of taxes] to the provinces and gave gifts in keeping with the generosity of the king.
19. And when the maidens were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate.