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Text File | 1996-06-12 | 32KB | 580 lines

1:1 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this [is]
 Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Cush, [over] a hundred
 and seven and twenty provinces:)
1:2 [That] in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the
 throne of his kingdom, which [was] in Shushan the palace,
1:3 In the third year of his reign, he made a feast to all his
 princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the
 nobles and princes of the provinces, [being] before him:
1:4 When he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the
 honor of his excellent majesty many days, [even] a hundred and
 eighty days.
1:5 And when these days had expired, the king made a feast for
 all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both
 for great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of
 the king's palace;
1:6 [Where were] white, green, and blue [hangings], fastened
 with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars
 of marble: the beds [were of] gold and silver, upon a pavement
 of red, and blue, and white, and black marble.
1:7 And they gave [them] drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels
 being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance,
 according to the state of the king.
1:8 And the drinking [was] according to the law; none
 constrained: for so the king had appointed to all the officers
 of his house, that they should do according to every man's
 pleasure.
1:9 Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women [in] the
 royal house which [belonged] to king Ahasuerus.
1:10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry
 with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and
 Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served
 in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,
1:11 To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown
 royal, to show the people and the princes her beauty: for she
 [was] fair to look on.
1:12 But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's
 commandment by [his] chamberlains: therefore was the king very
 wroth, and his anger burned in him.
1:13 Then the king said to the wise men, who knew the times,
 (for so [was] the king's manner towards all that knew law and
 judgment:
1:14 And the next to him [was] Carshena, Shethar, Admatha,
 Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, [and] Memucan, the seven princes of
 Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, [and] who sat the
 first in the kingdom;)
1:15 What shall we do to the queen Vashti according to law,
 because she hath not performed the commandment of the king
 Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?
1:16 And Memucan answered before the king and the princes,
 Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also
 to all the princes, and to all the people that [are] in all the
 provinces of the king Ahasuerus.
1:17 For [this] deed of the queen will come abroad to all women,
 so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes, when it
 shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the
 queen to be brought in before him, but she came not.
1:18 [Likewise] will the ladies of Persia and Media say this day
 to all the king's princes, who have heard of the deed of the
 queen. Thus [will there arise] too much contempt and wrath.
1:19 If it pleaseth the king, let a royal commandment go from
 him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and
 the Medes, that it be not altered, That Vashti come no more
 before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate
 to another that is better than she.
1:20 And when the king's decree which he shall make shall be
 published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the
 wives will give to their husbands honor, both to great and
 small.
1:21 And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the
 king did according to the word of Memucan:
1:22 For he sent letters into all the king's provinces, into
 every province according to the writing of it, and to every
 people after their language, that every man should bear rule in
 his own house, and that [it] should be published according to
 the language of every people.
2:1 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was
 appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what
 was decreed against her.
2:2 Then said the king's servants that ministered to him, Let
 there be fair young virgins sought for the king:
2:3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of
 his kingdom, that they may collect all the fair young virgins
 to Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, into the
 custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women;
 and let their things for purification be given [them]:
2:4 And let the maiden who pleaseth the king be queen instead of
 Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so.
2:5 [Now] in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose
 name [was] Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the
 son of Kish, a Benjaminite;
2:6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity
 which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom
 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
2:7 And he brought up Hadassah, that [is], Esther, his uncle's
 daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid
 [was] fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and
 mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
2:8 So it came to pass, when the king's commandment and his
 decree were heard, and when many maidens were assembled at
 Shushan the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was
 brought also to the king's house, to the custody of Hegai,
 keeper of the women.
2:9 And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from
 him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with
 such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens [who were]
 meet to be given her, out of the king's house: and he preferred
 her and her maids to the best [place] of the house of the
 women.
2:10 Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred: for
 Mordecai had charged her that she should not show [it].
2:11 And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the
 women's house, to know how Esther did, and what would become of
 her.
2:12 Now when every maid's turn had come to go in to king
 Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to
 the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their
 purifications accomplished, [to wit], six months with oil of
 myrrh, and six months with sweet odors, and with [other] things
 for the purifying of the women;)
2:13 Then thus came [every] maiden to the king; whatever she
 desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the
 women to the king's house.
2:14 In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned
 into the second house of the women, to the custody of
 Shaashgaz, the king's chamberlain, who kept the concubines: she
 came in to the king no more, except that the king delighted in
 her, and she was called by name.
2:15 Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the
 uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, had come
 to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the
 king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. And
 Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon
 her.
2:16 So Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus into his house royal
 in the tenth month, which [is] the month Tebeth, in the seventh
 year of his reign.
2:17 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.
2:18 Then the king made a great feast to all his princes and his
 servants, [even] Esther's feast; and he made a release to the
 provinces, and gave gifts, according to the state of the king.
2:19 And when the virgins were assembled the second time, then
 Mordecai sat in the king's gate.
2:20 Esther had not [yet] showed her kindred, nor her people; as
 Mordecai had charged her: for Esther performed the commandment
 of Mordecai, as w