Esther 2:16

THE MESSAGE

She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of the king's reign.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
She was taken to King Ahasuerus in the palace in the tenth month, the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Hebrew Names Version
So Ester was taken to king Achashverosh into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tevet, in the seventh year of his reign.

King James Version
So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

English Standard Version
And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign,

New Century Version
So Esther was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, during Xerxes' seventh year as king.

New English Translation
Then Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus at his royal residence in the tenth month (that is, the month of Tebeth) in the seventh year of his reign.

Amplified Bible
So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his royal palace in the tenth month, that is, the month of Tebeth (Dec-Jan), in the seventh year of his reign.

New American Standard Bible
So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

World English Bible
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.

Geneva Bible (1587)
So Ester was taken vnto King Ahashuerosh into his house royall in the tenth moneth, which is the moneth Tebeth, in the seuenth yeere of his reigne.

Legacy Standard Bible
So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal house in the tenth month which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Berean Standard Bible
She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Complete Jewish Bible
She was brought to King Achashverosh in his royal palace in the tenth month, Tevet, during the seventh year of his reign.

Darby Translation
So Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus, into his royal house, in the tenth month, that is, the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Easy-to-Read Version
So Esther was taken to King Xerxes in the palace. This happened in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his rule.

George Lamsa Translation
So Esther entered before King Akhshirash into his royal house in the tenth month, that is, January, in the fourth year of his reign.

Good News Translation
So in Xerxes' seventh year as king, in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, Esther was brought to King Xerxes in the royal palace.

Lexham English Bible
Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his palace, in the tenth month that is Tebeth in the seventh year of his reign.

Literal Translation
And Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And Hester was taken vnto kynge Ahasuerus in to the house royall, in the tenth moneth which is called Tebeth, in the seuenthe yeare of his reigne.

American Standard Version
So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Bible in Basic English
So Esther was taken in to King Ahasuerus in his house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his rule.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And Esther was taken vnto king Ahasuerus into his house royall, in the tenth moneth (which is the moneth Tebeth) in the seuenth yere of his raigne.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

King James Version (1611)
So Esther was taken vnto king Ahasuerus, into his house royall, in the tenth moneth (which is the moneth Tebeth) in the seuenth yeere of his reigne.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
So Esther went in to king Artaxerxes in the twelfth month, which is Adar, in the seventh year of his reign.

English Revised Version
So Esther was taken unto king Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor sche was lad to the bed of kyng Assuerus, in the tenthe monethe, which is clepid Cebeth, in the seuenthe yeer of his rewme.

Update Bible Version
So Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

New King James Version
So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

New Living Translation
Esther was taken to King Xerxes at the royal palace in early winter of the seventh year of his reign.

New Life Bible
So Esther was taken to the beautiful house of King Ahasuerus in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his rule.

New Revised Standard
When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So then Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus, into his royal house, in the tenth month, the same, was the month Tebeth, - in the seventh year of his reign.

Douay-Rheims Bible
So she was brought to the chamber of king Assuerus the tenth month, which is called Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Revised Standard Version
And when Esther was taken to King Ahasu-e'rus into his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign,

Young's Literal Translation
And Esther is taken unto the king Ahasuerus, unto his royal house, in the tenth month -- it [is] the month of Tebeth -- in the seventh year of his reign,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus to his royal palace in the tenth month which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.

Contextual Overview

¹Later, when King Xerxes' anger had cooled and he was having second thoughts about what Vashti had done and what he had ordered against her, the king's young attendants stepped in and got the ball rolling: "Let's begin a search for beautiful young virgins for the king. Let the king appoint officials in every province of his kingdom to bring every beautiful young virgin to the palace complex of Susa and to the harem run by Hegai, the king's eunuch who oversees the women; he will put them through their beauty treatments. Then let the girl who best pleases the king be made queen in place of Vashti." The king liked this advice and took it. ⁵Now there was a Jew who lived in the palace complex in Susa. His name was Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish—a Benjaminite. His ancestors had been taken from Jerusalem with the exiles and carried off with King Jehoiachin of Judah by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon into exile. Mordecai had reared his cousin Hadassah, otherwise known as Esther, since she had no father or mother. The girl had a good figure and a beautiful face. After her parents died, Mordecai had adopted her. ⁸ When the king's order had been publicly posted, many young girls were brought to the palace complex of Susa and given over to Hegai who was overseer of the women. Esther was among them. ⁹Hegai liked Esther and took a special interest in her. Right off he started her beauty treatments, ordered special food, assigned her seven personal maids from the palace, and put her and her maids in the best rooms in the harem. Esther didn't say anything about her family and racial background because Mordecai had told her not to. ¹¹ Every day Mordecai strolled beside the court of the harem to find out how Esther was and get news of what she was doing. ¹²Each girl's turn came to go in to King Xerxes after she had completed the twelve months of prescribed beauty treatments—six months' treatment with oil of myrrh followed by six months with perfumes and various cosmetics. When it was time for the girl to go to the king, she was given whatever she wanted to take with her when she left the harem for the king's quarters. She would go there in the evening; in the morning she would return to a second harem overseen by Shaashgaz, the king's eunuch in charge of the concubines. She never again went back to the king unless the king took a special liking to her and asked for her by name. ¹⁵ When it was Esther's turn to go to the king (Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his daughter), she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch in charge of the harem, had recommended. Esther, just as she was, won the admiration of everyone who saw her. ¹⁶ She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of the king's reign. ¹⁷The king fell in love with Esther far more than with any of his other women or any of the other virgins—he was totally smitten by her. He placed a royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. Then the king gave a great banquet for all his nobles and officials—"Esther's Banquet." He proclaimed a holiday for all the provinces and handed out gifts with royal generosity. ¹⁹On one of the occasions when the virgins were being gathered together, Mordecai was sitting at the King's Gate. All this time, Esther had kept her family background and race a secret as Mordecai had ordered; Esther still did what Mordecai told her, just as when she was being raised by him.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the tenth month: Esther 8:9

the seventh: Esther 2:1, Esther 2:3, Ezra 7:8

Reciprocal: Ezra 10:9 - the ninth month Esther 3:7 - in the twelfth Jeremiah 39:1 - the tenth

Cross-References

Genesis 2:1
Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the last detail.

Genesis 2:2
By the seventh day God had finished his work. On the seventh day he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day. He made it a Holy Day Because on that day he rested from his work, all the creating God had done. This is the story of how it all started, of Heaven and Earth when they were created.

1 Samuel 15:22
Then Samuel said, Do you think all God wants are sacrifices— empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production. Not doing what God tells you is far worse than fooling around in the occult. Getting self-important around God is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors. Because you said No to God 's command, he says No to your kingship.

1 Timothy 6:17
Tell those rich in this world's wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow. Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

So Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus, into his house royal,.... Did not return on the morrow to the house of the women, as those who only became the king's concubines did, Esther 2:14, but she was taken to be his wife, and designed for his queen, and so was retained in his palace, and placed in an apartment suitable to the dignity she was about to be advanced unto:

and this was done in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth; and answers to part of December and part of January; not the twelfth month Adar, as the Septuagint version, and so Josephus q, contrary to the original text: either that law had not obtained among the Persians, or the king thought himself not bound by it, which forbid marriage at any other time than the beginning of the vernal equinox r:

in the seventh year of his reign; and the divorce of Vashti being in the third year of his reign, it was four years before Esther was taken by him; who, if Xerxes, it may be accounted for by his preparation for, and engagement in, a war with Greece, which took him up all this time; and from whence he returned in the seventh year of his reign, at the beginning of it, and married Esther at the close of it, see Esther 2:1 as may be suggested.

q Ut supra (Antiqu. l. 11. c.6. sect. 2.) r Strabo. Geograph. l. 1. p. 504.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Tebeth (compare the corresponding Egyptian month, “Tobi” or “Tubi”), corresponded nearly to our January.

In the seventh year of his reign - In December, 479 B.C., or January, 478 B.C. Xerxes quitted Sardis for Susa in, or soon after, September, 479 B.C. It has been regarded as a “difficulty” that Vashti’s place, declared vacant in 483 B.C., was not supplied until the end of 479 B.C., four years afterward. But since two years out of the four had been occupied by the Grecian expedition, the objection cannot be considered very weighty.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 16. The tenth month - Tebeth — Answering to part of our December and January.