Esther 2:8-14

8So it came about, when the command and decree of the king were heard and 1many young ladies were gathered to the citadel of Susa into the 2custody of 3Hegai, that Esther was taken to the king’s 4palace into the custody of Hegai, who was in charge of the women. 9Now the young lady pleased him and found favor with him. So he quickly provided her with her 5cosmetics and 6food, gave her seven choice female attendants from the king’s palace, and transferred her and her attendants to the best place in the harem. 107Esther did not reveal her people or her kindred, because Mordecai had instructed her that she was not to reveal them. 11And every day Mordecai walked back and forth in front of the courtyard of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.

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 8desired was given her to 9take 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 10custody 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.