Bible Strands
Esther 2:16
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative places Esther in the royal palace during her designated turn to appear before King Xerxes. This occurs after her adoption by Mordecai and her compliance with Hegai’s counsel regarding the harem selection process.
The words — The verb וַ/תִּלָּקַ֨ח (va./ti.la.Kach) literally renders “and she was taken,” marking a passive movement into the king’s presence.
The thread — The verse anchors a royal timeline that echoes in Esther 8:9 and Ezra 7:8, where biblical authors consistently date events by the regnal year and month of Persian kings. This pattern establishes a historical framework for the narrative.
Why it lands — The text records a precise chronological marker without commentary, requiring the reader to track how events unfold within documented historical intervals. It demands attention to the sequence of royal appointments rather than immediate theological explanation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
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.
Cross-references
- Esther 8:9 At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush—writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.
- Ezra 7:8 Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king.
- Esther 2:1 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.
- Esther 2:3 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.