The Koine Bible

And after these things the king ceased from the anger and no longer remembered Vashti, remembering what she had spoken and how he had condemned her.

And the king’s attendants said, Let pure, beautiful girls in form be sought for the king.

And let the king appoint village heads in all the provinces of his kingdom, and let them select beautiful virgin girls in appearance to Susa the city, to the women’s quarters, and let them be handed over to the king’s eunuch, the guardian of the women, and let ointment and the rest of the care be given

and the woman who ever pleases the king shall reign instead of Astin, and the matter pleased the king, and he did thus

And there was a Jewish man in Susa the city, and his name was Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin.

who had been taken captive from Jerusalem, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive

And he had as a foster child the daughter of Aminadab, his father’s brother, and her name was Esther; and when her parents had died, he had brought her up for himself as a wife, and the young girl was beautiful in appearance.

And when the king’s command was heard, many young women were gathered into Susa the city, under the hand of Gai, and Esther was brought to Gai, the keeper of the women.

And the maiden pleased him, and she found favor before him, and he hastened to give to her the cosmetic treatment and the portion and the seven maidens assigned to her from the royal house, and he treated her well and her maids in the women’s quarters

And Esther did not show her race nor her fatherland, for Mordecai had commanded her not to disclose it.

And every day Mordecai walked about in the women’s court, watching what would happen to Esther.

Now this was the time for a girl to go in to the king, when she had completed twelve months; for so are the days of their treatment completed, six months being anointed with myrrh oil and six months with the perfumes and with the women’s cosmetics

and then she goes in to the king, and whatever she may say he will give her to go in with her from the women’s quarters to the royal house

In the evening she goes in and by day she runs back to the second women’s quarters, where Gai, the eunuch of the king, the keeper of the women, is, and she no longer goes in to the king unless she is called by name.

Now when the time came for Esther, the daughter of Aminadab, the brother of Mordecai’s father, to go in to the king, she neglected nothing of what the eunuch, the keeper of the women, had enjoined on her; for Esther was finding favor with all who were looking upon her

And Esther entered in to Artaxerxes the king in the twelfth month, which is Adar, in the seventh year of his reign

And the king loved Esther, and she found favor above all the virgins, and he put on her the royal diadem of the woman.

And the king made a feast for all his friends and his armies for seven days, and he exalted the marriages of Esther, and he made a release for those under his kingdom.

Now Mordecai was serving in the court

And Esther did not disclose her homeland, for Mordecai had charged her thus, to fear God and to do his commandments, as when she was with him; and Esther did not change her manner of life.

And the two eunuchs of the king, the chief bodyguards, were grieved because Mordecai was advanced, and they sought to kill Artaxerxes the king

And the matter was made known to Mordecai, and he informed Esther, and she revealed to the king the things of the plot.

And the king examined the two eunuchs and hanged them, and the king ordered that it be recorded for a memorial in the royal library, because of Mordecai’s goodwill, in praise