When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate.
Parallel translations
- WEB When the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate.
- KJV And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king’s gate.
- NKJV When virgins were gathered together a second time, Mordecai sat within the king’s gate.
- NASB Now when the virgins were gathered together for the second time, then Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate.
- NLT Even after all the young women had been transferred to the second harem and Mordecai had become a palace official,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
During a second gathering of virgins, Mordecai is sitting at the king's gate. His position there sets up the events that follow.
Overview
Mordecai's place at the king's gate indicates he held some official position in the royal administration. This vantage point will allow him to overhear a plot against the king. The seemingly incidental detail is providentially significant, for God positions Mordecai precisely where he can render a service that will later prove vital to the rescue of the Jews.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Esth 2:21In 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.
- Esth 2:3–4and 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.
- Esth 5:13Yet none of this satisfies me as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
- Esth 3:2–3All 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.
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Though God is never named, his hidden hand preserves the people from whom the Messiah will come — a deliverance 'for such a time as this' that anticipates the open deliverance of Christ.
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Original language
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