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Text File | 1996-06-12 | 32KB | 586 lines

1:1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this [is]
 Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, [over]
 an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)
1:2 [That] in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the
 throne of his kingdom, which [was] in Shushan the palace,
1:3 In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his
 princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the
 nobles and princes of the provinces, [being] before him:
1:4 When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the
 honour of his excellent majesty many days, [even] an hundred
 and fourscore days.
1:5 And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto
 all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both
 unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of
 the king's palace;
1:6 [Where were] white, green, and blue, [hangings], fastened
 with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars
 of marble: the beds [were of] gold and silver, upon a pavement
 of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble.
1:7 And they gave [them] drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels
 being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance,
 according to the state of the king.
1:8 And the drinking [was] according to the law; none did
 compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of
 his house, that they should do according to every man's
 pleasure.
1:9 Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women [in] the
 royal house which [belonged] to king Ahasuerus.
1:10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry
 with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and
 Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served
 in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,
1:11 To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown
 royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she
 [was] fair to look on.
1:12 But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's
 commandment by [his] chamberlains: therefore was the king very
 wroth, and his anger burned in him.
1:13 Then the king said to the wise men, which knew the times,
 (for so [was] the king's manner toward all that knew law and
 judgment:
1:14 And the next unto him [was] Carshena, Shethar, Admatha,
 Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, [and] Memucan, the seven princes of
 Persia and Media, which saw the king's face, [and] which sat
 the first in the kingdom;)
1:15 What shall we do unto the queen Vashti according to law,
 because she hath not performed the commandment of the king
 Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?
1:16 And Memucan answered before the king and the princes,
 Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also
 to all the princes, and to all the people that [are] in all the
 provinces of the king Ahasuerus.
1:17 For [this] deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all
 women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes,
 when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti
 the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not.
1:18 [Likewise] shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this
 day unto all the king's princes, which have heard of the deed
 of the queen. Thus [shall there arise] too much contempt and
 wrath.
1:19 If it please the king, let there go a royal commandment
 from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians
 and the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more
 before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate
 unto another that is better than she.
1:20 And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be
 published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the
 wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and
 small.
1:21 And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the
 king did according to the word of Memucan:
1:22 For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into
 every province according to the writing thereof, and to every
 people after their language, that every man should bear rule in
 his own house, and that [it] should be published according to
 the language of every people.
2:1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was
 appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what
 was decreed against her.
2:2 Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let
 there be fair young virgins sought for the king:
2:3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of
 his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young
 virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women,
 unto the custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the
 women; and let their things for purification be given [them]:
2:4 And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead
 of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so.
2:5 [Now] in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose
 name [was] Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the
 son of Kish, a Benjamite;
2:6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity
 which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom
 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
2:7 And he brought up Hadassah, that [is], Esther, his uncle's
 daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid
 [was] fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and
 mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
2:8 So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his
 decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together
 unto Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther
 was brought also unto the king's house, to the custody of
 Hegai, keeper of the women.
2:9 And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of
 him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with
 such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens, [which were]
 meet to be given her, out of the king's house: and he preferred
 her and her maids unto the best [place] of the house of the
 women.
2:10 Esther had not shewed her people nor her kindred: for
 Mordecai had charged her that she should not shew [it].
2:11 And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the
 women's house, to know how Esther did, and what should become
 of her.
2:12 Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king
 Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to
 the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their
 purifications accomplished, [to wit], six months with oil of
 myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with [other]
 things for the purifying of the women;)
2:13 Then thus came [every] maiden unto the king; whatsoever she
 desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the
 women unto the king's house.
2:14 In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned
 into the second house of the women, to the custody of
 Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines:
 she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in
 her, and that she were called by name.
2:15 Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the
 uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come
 to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the
 king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And
 Esther obtained favour in the sight of all them that looked
 upon her.
2:16 So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house
 royal in the tenth month, which [is] the month Tebeth, in the
 seventh year of his reign.
2:17 And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she
 obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the
 virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made
 her queen instead of Vashti.
2:18 Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and
 his servants, [even] Esther's feast; and he made a release to
 the provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the
 king.
2:19 And when the virgins were gathered together the second
 time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate.
2:20 Esther had not [yet] shewed her kin