A Search for a Queen
1 After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her. 2 Then the king’s servants who served him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. 3 Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel of Susa, to the women’s house, to the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be given them; 4 and let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” The thing pleased the king, and he did so. 5 There was a certain Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, 6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. 7 He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter. 8 So, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together to the citadel of Susa, to the custody of Hegai, Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. 9 The maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from him. He quickly gave her cosmetics and her portions of food, and the seven choice maidens who were to be given her out of the king’s house. He moved her and her maidens to the best place in the women’s house. 10 Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives, because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make it known. 11 Mordecai walked every day in front of the court of the women’s house, to find out how Esther was doing, and what would become of her.
The replacement of the queen is organized as an administrative procedure, and the two people the story turns on are introduced without ceremony.
The king remembered Vashti, and the servants' proposal manages the memory rather than the regret: let a search be made. What follows is a levy — officers in every province, young women gathered to the citadel, a keeper appointed, cosmetics issued. The book describes it in the vocabulary of supply.
Nothing in the account suggests the women had a choice, and the book does not soften it. Esther was taken into the king's house Esther 2:8, the verb passive.
Verses 5 and 6 introduce Mordecai with a genealogy and a history. He is the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite — and his family had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives taken with Jeconiah. Two generations at least from the deportation, and still identified by it.
Verse 7 introduces Esther with two names and a bereavement: Hadassah, that is, Esther — the first name occurring nowhere else in Scripture — and she had neither father nor mother. An orphan raised by a cousin who took her for his own daughter.
Then verse 10, and it is the detail the next four chapters depend on: Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives, on Mordecai's instruction. The book offers no evaluation of the concealment, and no explanation of why he thought it necessary.
Verse 11 shows him walking past the women's court every day to learn how she was. It is the only glimpse of affection in the chapter, and it is the act of a man who has handed someone over and cannot follow.
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