Esther 2-4

Contemporary English Version

Esther Becomes Queen

2 After a while, King Xerxes got over being angry. But he kept thinking about what Vashti had done and the law that he had written because of her. ² Then the king's personal servants said:

Your Majesty, a search must be made to find you some beautiful young women. ³ You can select officers in every province to bring them to the place where you keep your wives in the capital city of Susa. Put your servant Hegai in charge of them since that is his job. He can see to it that they are given the proper beauty treatments. ⁴ Then let the young woman who pleases you most take Vashti's place as queen.

King Xerxes liked these suggestions, and he followed them.

⁵ At this time a Jew named Mordecai was living in Susa. His father was Jair, and his grandfather Shimei was the son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin. ^6 (A) Kish^[a] was one of the people that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem, when he took King Jeconiah of Judah to Babylonia.

⁷ Mordecai had a very beautiful cousin named Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah. He had raised her as his own daughter, after her father and mother died. ⁸ When the king ordered the search for beautiful women, many were taken to the king's palace in Susa, and Esther was one of them.

Hegai was put in charge of all the women, ⁹ and from the first day, Esther was his favorite. He began her beauty treatments at once. He also gave her plenty of food and seven special maids from the king's palace, and they had the best rooms.

¹⁰ Mordecai had warned Esther not to tell anyone that she was a Jew, and she obeyed him. ¹¹ He was anxious to see how Esther was getting along and to learn what had happened to her. So each day he would walk back and forth in front of the court where the women lived.

¹² The young women were given beauty treatments for one whole year. The first six months their skin was rubbed with olive oil and myrrh, and the last six months it was treated with perfumes and cosmetics. Then each of them spent the night alone with King Xerxes. ¹³ When a young woman went to the king, she could wear whatever clothes or jewelry she chose from the women's living quarters. ¹⁴ In the evening she would go to the king, and the following morning she would go to the place where his wives stayed after being with him. There a man named Shaashgaz was in charge of the king's wives.^[b] Only the ones the king wanted and asked for by name could go back to the king.

^15-16 Xerxes had been king for seven years when Esther's turn came to go to him during Tebeth,^[c] the tenth month of the year. Everyone liked Esther. The king's personal servant Hegai was in charge of the women, and Esther trusted Hegai and asked him what she ought to take with her.^[d]

¹⁷ Xerxes liked Esther more than he did any of the other young women. None of them pleased him as much as she did, and he immediately fell in love with her and crowned her queen in place of Vashti. ¹⁸ In honor of Esther he gave a big dinner for his leaders and officials. Then he declared a holiday^[e] everywhere in his kingdom and gave expensive gifts.

Mordecai Saves the King's Life

¹⁹ When the young women were brought together again, Esther's cousin Mordecai had become a palace official. ²⁰ He had told Esther never to tell anyone that she was a Jew, and she obeyed him, just as she had always done.

²¹ Bigthana and Teresh were the two men who guarded King Xerxes' rooms, but they got angry with the king and decided to kill him. ²² Mordecai found out about their plans and asked Queen Esther to tell the king what he had found out. ²³ King Xerxes learned that Mordecai's report was true, and he had the two men hanged. Then the king had all of this written down in his record book as he watched.

Haman Plans To Destroy the Jews

3 Later, King Xerxes promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha to the highest position in his kingdom. Haman was a descendant of Agag,^{[f] 2} and the king had given orders for his officials at the royal gate to honor Haman by kneeling down to him. All of them obeyed except Mordecai. ³ When the other officials asked Mordecai why he disobeyed the king's command, ⁴ he said, “Because I am a Jew.” They spoke to him for several days about kneeling down, but he still refused to obey. Finally, they reported this to Haman, to find out if he would let Mordecai get away with it.

⁵ Haman was furious to learn that Mordecai refused to kneel down and honor him. ⁶ And when he found out that Mordecai was a Jew, he knew that killing only Mordecai was not enough. Every Jew in the whole kingdom had to be killed.

⁷ It was now the twelfth year of the rule of King Xerxes. During Nisan,^[g] the first month of the year, Haman said, “Find out the best time for me to do this.”^[h] The time chosen was Adar,^[i] the twelfth month.

^8 (B) Then Haman went to the king and said:

Your Majesty, there are some people who live all over your kingdom and won't have a thing to do with anyone else. They have customs that are different from everyone else's, and they refuse to obey your laws. We would be better off to get rid of them! ⁹ Why not give orders for all of them to be killed? I can promise that you will get tons of silver for your treasury.

¹⁰ The king handed his official ring to Haman, who hated the Jews, and the king told him, ¹¹ “Do what you want with those people! You can keep their money.”

¹² On the thirteenth day of Nisan, Haman called in the king's secretaries and ordered them to write letters in every language used in the kingdom. The letters were written in the name of the king and sealed by using the king's own ring.^[j] At once they were sent to the king's highest officials, the governors of each province, and the leaders of the different nations in the kingdom of Xerxes.

¹³ The letters were taken by messengers to every part of the kingdom, and this is what was said in the letters:

On the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, all Jewish men, women, and children are to be killed. And their property is to be taken.

^14-15 King Xerxes gave orders for these letters to be posted where they could be seen by everyone all over the kingdom. The king's command was obeyed, and one of the letters was read aloud to the people in the walled city of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink together, but no one in the city^[k] could figure out what was going on.

Mordecai Asks for Esther's Help

4 When Mordecai heard about the letter, he tore his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. Then he covered his head with ashes and went through the city, crying and weeping. ² But he could go only as far as the palace gate, because no one wearing sackcloth was allowed inside the palace. ^3 (C) In every province where the king's orders were read, the Jews cried and mourned, and they went without eating.^[l] Many of them even put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.

⁴ When Esther's servant girls and her other servants told her what Mordecai was doing, she became very upset and sent Mordecai some clothes to wear in place of the sackcloth. But he refused to take them.

⁵ Esther had a servant named Hathach, who had been given to her by the king. So she called him in and said, “Find out what's wrong with Mordecai and why he's acting this way.”

⁶ Hathach went to Mordecai in the city square in front of the palace gate, ⁷ and Mordecai told him everything that had happened. He also told him how much money Haman had promised to add to the king's treasury, if all the Jews were killed.

⁸ Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the orders for the murder of the Jews and told him that these had been read in Susa. He said, “Show this to Esther and explain what it means. Ask her to go to the king and beg him to have pity on her people, the Jews!”

⁹ Hathach went back to Esther and told her what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰ She answered, “Tell Mordecai ¹¹ there is a law about going in to see the king, and all his officials and his people know about this law. Anyone who goes in to see the king without being invited by him will be put to death. The only way that anyone can be saved is for the king to hold out the gold scepter to that person. And it's been thirty days since he has asked for me.”

¹² When Mordecai was told what Esther had said, ¹³ he sent back this reply, “Don't think that you will escape being killed with the rest of the Jews, just because you live in the king's palace. ¹⁴ If you don't speak up now, we will somehow get help, but you and your family will be killed. It could be that you were made queen for a time like this!”

¹⁵ Esther sent a message to Mordecai, saying, ¹⁶ “Bring together all the Jews in Susa and tell them to go without eating for my sake! Don't eat or drink for three days and nights. My servant girls and I will do the same. Then I will go in to see the king, even if it means I must die.”

¹⁷ Mordecai did everything Esther told him to do.