10Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives; for Mordecai had charged her that she should not make it known.
11Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women`s house, to know how Esther did, and what would become of her.
12Now when the turn of every maiden was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after it had been done to her according to the law for the women twelve months (for so were the days of their purification accomplished, [to wit], six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odors and with the things for the purifying of the women),
13then in this wise came the 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.
14In the evening she went, and on the next day 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 the king delighted in her, and she were called by name.
15Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king`s chamberlain, the keeper of the women, appointed. Esther obtained favor in the sight of all those who looked at her.
16So 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.
