⁵ There was a certain Jew in Shushan the palace, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite, ⁶ who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives that had been carried away with ^[a]Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. ⁷ And he ^[b]brought up Hadassah, that is, 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.

⁸ 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, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women. ⁹ And the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him; and he speedily gave her her things for purification, with her portions, and the seven maidens who were meet to be given her out of the king’s house: and he removed her and her maidens to the best place of the house of the women. ¹⁰ Esther had not made known her people nor her kindred; for Mordecai had charged her that she should not make it known. 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.