Esther 2:12-18

12Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after the end of her twelve months under the regulations for the women--for the days of their beauty treatment were completed as follows: six months with oil of myrrh and six months with balsam oil and the cosmetics for women-- 13the young woman would go in to the king in this way: anything that she 1desired was given her to 2take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14In the evening she would enter and in the morning she would return to the second harem, to the 3custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.

15Now when the turn of Esther, 4the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her as his daughter, came to go in to the king, she did not request anything except what 5Hegai, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the women, 6advised. And Esther was finding favor in the eyes of all who saw her. 16So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

17The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that 7he set the royal turban on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. 18Then 8the king held a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his officials and his servants; he also made a holiday for the provinces and gave gifts 9in proportion to the king’s bounty.