8 And it happened, at the proclaiming of the edict of the king and his law, when many young women were being gathered to the citadel of Susa under Hegai’s care, Esther was taken to the king’s palace under the care of Hegai who was in charge of the women.
9 The young woman pleased him and she won favor in his presence, and he quickly provided for her beauty treatment and her portion of food, with seven chosen maids to give to her from the king’s palace, and he advanced her and her maids to the best part of the harem.
10 Esther did not disclose her people and her family because Modecai had charged her that she must not tell.
11 And every day Modecai would walk up and down in front of the courtyard of the harem to learn how Esther was doing.
12 When the turn came for each girl to go to King Ahasuerus, after the end of twelve months of being under the regulations of the women—for the days of their beauty treatments had to be filled, six months with the oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and women’s cosmetics—
13 in this way, the girl goes to the king and all that she asks is given to her to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace.
14 In the evening she would go and in the morning she would return to the second harem under the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch in charge of the concubines. She would not go back to the king unless the king delighted in her and she was called by name.