¹⁴ In the evening she went, and in the morning she came back to the second harem in custody of Sha-ash′gaz the king’s eunuch who was in charge of the concubines; she did not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.

¹⁵ When the turn came for Esther the daughter of Ab′ihail the uncle of Mor′decai, who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her. ¹⁶ And when Esther was taken to King Ahasu-e′rus into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign,