Esther 2:16
“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 (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Esther is brought to the king in the tenth month of the seventh year of his reign.
What Does Esther 2:16 Mean?
The narrator dates the moment precisely: the tenth month, Tebeth, in the seventh year of the king's reign. Such exactness lends the account the weight of history, not legend. Four years have passed since Vashti's fall, years in which Esther was being readied, unknowingly, for this hour.
Again the verb is taken; Esther is brought to the king, carried by events larger than herself. Yet the careful timestamp suggests this is no random night. The orphan from the house of the women now enters the house royal at an appointed time, and the reader who has followed the hidden current senses that the appointment was set long before.