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. Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, "Let there
be fair young maidens sought for the king in all his kingdom; and let
the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti." And the
thing pleased the king; and he did so.
There was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, who had brought up
Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and
the maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were
dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter. 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, that Esther was taken
into the king's house.
Now when the turn of Esther was come to go in unto the king, she
required nothing but what the keeper of the women appointed. And Esther
obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her. So Esther
was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month,
in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther above all
the women, and she obtained grace and favor 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.
Then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants,
even Esther's feast; and he gave gifts, according to the bounty of the
king.
Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people; as Mordecai had
charged her: for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when
she was brought up with him.
=Sec.94. The Plot against the Jews= (Esther 3:1, 2, 5, 6, 8-13; 4:1, 2, 4,
5, 8, 11-17)