¹³ then the young woman would go before the king in this way: anything that she wanted was given her to take with her from the harem into the king’s palace. ¹⁴ In the evening she would go in and the next morning she would return to the ^[a]second harem, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the ^[b]concubines. She would not return to the king unless he delighted in her and she was summoned by name.

¹⁵ Now as for Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai who had taken her in as his [own] daughter, when her turn came to go in to the king, she requested nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch [and attendant] who was in charge of the women, advised. And Esther found favor in the sight of all who saw her.