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Esther 2:13

in Esther 2

When the young woman would go to the king, she was given whatever she requested to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

then in this wise came the maiden unto the king: Whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house.

KJV

Then thus came every maiden unto the king; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king’s house.

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This verse in Esther 2

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Rabanus Maurus

Commentary on Esther · Written before 856.

For any soul that strives to hurry to the bed of the heavenly Groom receives from its teachers the adornment that is appropriate to it, and with which it shows itself more devoted to the understanding of the faith and the knowledge of virtue, so …

This site's exposition

according to the manner of the women

on Esther 2:12-14

The chapter slows to describe the machine Esther must pass through, twelve months of purification, six with oil of myrrh and six with sweet odours, before a single night with the king that ends, for most of the virgins, in Shaashgaz’s house of the concubines, called again only if the king delighted in her by name. Adeney reads the detail as the book’s honest picture of a harem system rather than a romance, an institution the text describes without praising. No woman leaves this process a queen except by the king’s later choice, and the text withholds any comment on whether the system itself was just.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

Desired - For ornament, or by way of attendance. And it should be observed, that every one whom the king took to his bed, was his wife of a lower rank, as Hagar was Abraham's, so that it would have been no sin or dishonour to Esther, though she had not been made queen.
Then thus came every virgin unto the king,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Whatsoever she desired - When any of the young women were called to go to the king, it appears that it was an ordinance that whatever kind of dress stuff, color, jewels, etc., they thought best to set off their persons, and render them more engaging, should be given them.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

Whatever she requested. Any entertainment and types of music.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Esther 2:13:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

18 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וּבָזֶ֕הand in this [way]

    uvazehH2088 →1180 times

  • הַֽנַּעֲרָ֖הthe young woman

    hanaarahH5291 →63 times

  • בָּאָ֣ה[was] going

    baahH935 →2568 times

  • אֶל־into

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • הַמֶּ֑לֶךְthe king

    hamelekhH4428 →2525 times

  • אֵת֩<obj.>

    ʾetH853 →10935 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֨רthat

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • תֹּאמַ֜רshe said

    tomarH559 →5305 times

  • יִנָּ֤תֵֽןit was given

    yinatenH5414 →2011 times

  • לָהּ֙to <the> her

    lah

  • לָב֣וֹאto go

    lavo'H935 →2568 times

  • עִמָּ֔הּwith her

    ʾimahH5973 →1050 times

  • מִבֵּ֥יתfrom [the] house of

    mibeitH1004 →2046 times

  • הַנָּשִׁ֖יםthe women

    hanashimH802 →781 times

  • עַד־to

    ʾad-H5704 →1261 times

  • בֵּ֥ית[the] house of

    beitH1004 →2046 times

  • הַמֶּֽלֶךְ׃the king

    hamelekhH4428 →2525 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About Esther

Esther Before the King, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Esther Before the King, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Esther: the study guide →Read Esther 2 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Esther and W. F. Adeney, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (Expositor's Bible).

Read on in Esther 2 →