| 2:1 | |
| 2:2 | Then the servants who were waiting on the king said to him, Let search be made for some fair young virgins for the king: |
| 2:3 | |
| 2:4 | And let the girl who is pleasing to the king be queen in place of Vashti. And the king was pleased with this suggestion; and he did so. |
| 2:5 | Now there was a certain Jew in Shushan named Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; |
| 2:6 | Who had been taken away from Jerusalem among those who had been made prisoner with Jeconiah, king of Judah, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken him away. |
| 2:7 | |
| 2:8 | |
| 2:9 | |
| 2:10 | Esther had not said what family or people she came from, for Mordecai had given her orders not to do so. |
| 2:11 | |
| 2:12 | Now every girl, when her turn came, had to go in to King Ahasuerus, after undergoing, for a space of twelve months, what was ordered by the law for the women (for this was the time necessary for making them clean, that is, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet perfumes and such things as are needed for making women clean): |
| 2:13 | |
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| 2:15 | |
| 2:16 | So Esther was taken in to King Ahasuerus in his house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his rule. |
| 2:17 | And Esther was more pleasing to the king than all the women, and to his eyes she was fairer and more full of grace than all the other virgins: so he put his crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. |
| 2:18 | |
| 2:19 | |
| 2:20 | Esther had still said nothing of her family or her people, as Mordecai had given her orders; for Esther did what Mordecai said, as when she was living with him. |
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| 2:21 | |
| 2:22 | |
| 2:23 | And when the thing had been looked into, it was seen to be true, and the two of them were put to death by hanging on a tree: and it was put down in the records before the king. |
Esther 2 - Bible in Basic English
