Strange Story: Esther 2 Why Was There a Second Gathering of Virgins

Esther was made queen in Esther 2:17. Then in 2:19 it says “when virgins were gathered a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the gate of the king (as a judge or government official).”

The statement was made first of all in order to show the timing of Mordecai’s act. The people of that day would have known when this second gathering happened and that was enough for them. It is stated in order to tell us that when that happened, Mordecai was already serving at the king’s gate (as a judge).

Did this happen after Esther was already made queen, or before?

There are a few ideas of what this might mean:

1. Some think that this means that, after Esther was chosen, all the rest of the virgins, whose turns had not yet come, were moved from the hall of virgins to the hall of concubines, showing that the contest was over. This interpretation sees the moving of the virgins and the “gathering of virgins” as the same thing. I do not think this is the best answer.

2. Others think that, after Esther was made queen, someone persuaded the king to have another round of seeking out virgins even though he had already chosen Esther and made her queen. Why would someone suggest this? It is possible that some people did not like the choice of Esther and wanted the king to keep searching.

However, there is nothing in the story that gives support to this idea, and it has always been a bad idea to tell a king that he made a mistake. The story tells us more than once that Esther had not yet revealed that she was a Jewess, so there was little room for hatred. It also tells us that the king was pleased with Esther. In my opinion, this theory does not hold water.

3. Esther may have been a part a subsequent group of virgins, not the first group. Esther 2:8 does not mention additional rounds of the contest; it simply states, “So it was, when the command and the decree of the king were heard, and many virgins were gathered to the citadel at Susa under the custody of Hegai, Esther was also taken to the palace of the king, to the care of Hegai the custodian.” Even though we are not told this at first, it is possible that there was more than one round in this contest and Esther was not part of that first round.

Hebrew story telling was often that way. Something was stated in the simplest terms, and then, if needed, more detail could be added later. Americans tell stories usually in a chronological order, but many people of other lands do not tell stories in that fashion. They give the most important information first, and then the less important information later, regardless of the order. When an American hears a story told in that way, he wants to interrupt the storyteller and ask, “When did that happen?” In this case it gives us the important information first – that the king deposed his queen and the method of choosing a new queen was a beauty contest. We are introduced to Esther, who is Mordecai’s niece. The other important fact of the first part of the story is that Esther was chosen as queen. At some point, while Mordecai was fulfilling his duty at the king’s gate, he heard a plot to assassinate the king and he reported it, but nothing was done to reward him for that act. The timing of that incident is not clear because the only thing we know about it is that Mordecai was at the king’s gate at the time “when the virgins were assembled for the second time,” whenever that was.

Esther 2:19 seems to be telling us that there was more than one gathering of virgins, even though it was not mentioned earlier. The most logical understanding of it is that the reference to the second gathering of virgins means that they ran the beauty contest in stages and did not bring in all the virgins at one time.

One of the contributing factors was the space available in the hall of virgins and the hall of concubines. The king’s hall of virgins and hall of concubines would have been limited to a certain number of women. While new space may have been constructed for this purpose, they did not know how long it would take for the king to find someone he was pleased with so they would not have wanted to build something too massive.

It is my educated guess that they planned for one year at a time. Approximately 365 virgins were brought in and the beauty treatments were begun. Even building enough space for 365 virgins and their attending maidens (Esther was given 7 maidens to attend to her needs – Esther 1:9), would have meant a large structure. After one year they started going in to spend one night with the king. As that first group began to take their turn going to the king, a new group was brought in and their year-long beauty treatments begun. That would be 730 virgins and their attending maidens in one building. Since four years elapsed between the time that Vashti was deposed until the time that Esther was made queen, it is logical to assume Esther was part of the third group.

The kingdom had 127 provinces; it included the important part of Egypt, all of Asia Minor, part of Greece, and it reached to the edge of India. The number of beautiful virgins in a kingdom that large would have been difficult to count, much less organize. Having all possible contenders in this beauty contest arrive and be taken in at one time seems untenable. The idea of stages makes more sense and fits better with the hints we are given in the book of Esther itself.

Conclusion:

My theory is that Esther was part of the third group of virgins to be brought in. Mordecai started his role as an official at the palace gate at the beginning of the second year of the contest, when the second group of virgin was brought in and when the first group started taking their turns to go to the king. That is the purpose of Esther 2:19. Mordecai’s foiling of the assassination of the king happened sometime after the second year had begun which was close to three years before Esther was made queen. If Esther was part of the third group of virgins to be brought in, as I suppose, she arrived at the beginning of the third year of the context and was taken to the king in the fourth year, specifically the 10^th month of the fourth year. This fits with the dates we are given that Vashti was deposed in the third year of the king’s reign, and Esther was made king in the seventh year of his reign.