Strange Story: Esther 2 – There Were at Least 2 and Probably 4 Groups of Virgins

The normal text below is from my timeline of the book of Esther while the italics portions are my supplemental remarks.

One year after the skin treatments began, the girls in the first group transitioned from the preparation phase to the “going-to-the-king” phase (2:12), and one of them was taken to the king each night (2:14). For this reason the one year-mark saw a significant transition.

At the same time that the first group was entering their “going-to-the-king” phase, a second group was chosen and brought in so they could begin their preparation phase with one year of skin treatments. Esther 2:19 tells us that there were at least 2 gatherings of virgins. The timing of a new group being brought in each year is an assumption based on the statement in 2:12 that the beauty treatments lasted for one year. If it weren’t for what is said in 2:19, Esther 2:12 could be interpreted to mean that they brought in the girls one per day, and exactly one year later that girl went to see the king. But 2:19 indicates that they were brought to the citadel in groups, and there were at least 2 groups. I think the order in which they went to the king was decided by the head eunuch after the year of preparation/testing was finished.

That process continued with a new group of girls coming in each year at the time the former group was transitioning to phase two.

I think Esther entered the king’s citadel in October of year 6 of his reign. The gathering of virgins had begun (in October) in year 3, and continued in years 4, 5 and 6, thus she was part of group 4.

Because the one year cycle is established by the text as something important, I assume that they continued using the one year cycle for the entire program. If I am right about that, Esther was part of group 4. Why so late? Maybe she was not old enough for the first few groups. We are probably talking about girls age 13 or 14 because that is when they were typically given in marriage, shortly after they reached child-bearing age. Another reason could be that they were drawing from all 127 provinces of the kingdom and the capital city had a high population. So they only took a small portion of the young virgins in the city of Susa each year.

I think these transitions always happened in October.

That means she transitioned to phase two in October of the king’s 7^th year.

2:16 tells us that in October of year 7 of the king’s reign, Esther took her turn to go to King Xerxes. I think she was probably the first one in her group to be taken to the king because she had already proven herself to the head Eunuch.