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. Kish was one of the people whom 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 favourite. 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.
15-16. Xerxes had been king for seven years when Esther's turn came to go to him during Tebeth, 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.
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 straight away he fell in love with her and crowned her queen in place of Vashti.
18. In honour of Esther he gave a big dinner for his leaders and officials. Then he declared a holiday everywhere in his kingdom and gave expensive gifts.
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 learnt 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.