Bible Strands
Esther 2:19
When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator places Mordecai at the king’s gate during the second assembly of the virgins, immediately following the king’s banquet and provincial tax holiday.
The words — וּ/בְ/הִקָּבֵ֥ץ (u./ve./hi.ka.Vetz) means "and when were gathered," marking the second collection of candidates. יֹשֵׁ֥ב (yo.Shev) translates as "[was] sitting," noting Mordecai’s stationary presence at the royal entrance.
The thread — The king’s gate reappears in Esther 2:21 when Mordecai detects a conspiracy by two eunuchs, and in Esther 3:2 where all royal servants bow to Haman at that same location.
Why it lands — The text records Mordecai’s quiet positioning in the administrative center without explaining his duties, requiring the reader to trace how his proximity to royal power intersects with the court’s shifting loyalties.
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
And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate.
Cross-references
- Esther 2:21 In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the entrance, grew angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.
- 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.
- Esther 3:2 All the royal servants at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded that this be done for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.
- Esther 5:13 Yet none of this satisfies me as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”