Monday in Season after Pentecost

15Verse 15. So Moses appealed to the LORD, 16Verse 16. “May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation 17Verse 17. who will go out and come in before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” 18Verse 18. And the LORD replied to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man with the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him. 19Verse 19. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, and commission him in their sight. 20Verse 20. Confer on him some of your authority, so that the whole congregation of Israel will obey him. 21Verse 21. He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who will seek counsel for him before the LORD by the judgment of the Urim. At his command, he and all the Israelites with him— the entire congregation— will go out and come in.” 22Verse 22. Moses did as the LORD had commanded him. He took Joshua, had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, 23Verse 23. and laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the LORD had instructed through Moses.

1Verse 1. Some time later, when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what had been decreed against her. 2Verse 2. Then the king’s attendants proposed, “Let a search be made for beautiful young virgins for the king, 3Verse 3. and let the king appoint commissioners in each province of his kingdom to assemble all the beautiful young women into the harem at the citadel of Susa. Let them be placed under the care of Hegai, the king’s eunuch in charge of the women, and let them be given beauty treatments. 4Verse 4. Then let the young woman who pleases the king become queen in place of Vashti.” This suggestion pleased the king, and he acted accordingly. 5Verse 5. Now there was at the citadel of Susa a Jewish man from the tribe of Benjamin named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish. 6Verse 6. He had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon among those taken captive with Jeconiah king of Judah. 7Verse 7. And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah (that is, Esther), the daughter of his uncle, because she did not have a father or mother. The young woman was lovely in form and appearance, and when her father and mother had died, Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter. 8Verse 8. When the king’s command and edict had been proclaimed, many young women gathered at the citadel of Susa under the care of Hegai. Esther was also taken to the palace and placed under the care of Hegai, the custodian of the women. 9Verse 9. And the young woman pleased him and obtained his favor, so he quickly provided her with beauty treatments and the special diet. He assigned to her seven select maidservants from the palace and transferred her with them to the best place in the harem. 10Verse 10. Esther did not reveal her people or her lineage, because Mordecai had instructed her not to do so. 11Verse 11. And every day Mordecai would walk back and forth in front of the court of the harem to learn about Esther’s welfare and what was happening to her. 12Verse 12. In the twelve months before her turn to go to King Xerxes, the harem regulation required each young woman to receive beauty treatments with oil of myrrh for six months, and then with perfumes and cosmetics for another six months. 13Verse 13. 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. 14Verse 14. She would go there in the evening, and in the morning she would return to a second harem under the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch in charge of the concubines. She would not return to the king unless he delighted in her and summoned her by name. 15Verse 15. Now Esther was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle from whom Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. And when it was her turn to go to the king, she did not ask for anything except what Hegai, the king’s trusted official in charge of the harem, had advised. And Esther found favor in the eyes of everyone who saw her. 16Verse 16. 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. 17Verse 17. And the king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she found grace and favor in his sight more than all of the other virgins. So he placed the royal crown upon her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. 18Verse 18. Then the king held a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his officials and servants. He proclaimed a tax holiday in the provinces and gave gifts worthy of the king’s bounty.