When virgins were gathered together a second time, Mordecai sat within 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.
- BSB When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at 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 in the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, who were doorkeepers, were angry, and sought to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus.
- Esth 2:3–4Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel of Susa, to the women’s house, to the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be given them;
- Esth 5:13Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
- Esth 3:2–3All the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn’t bow down or pay him 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.
How Esther 2:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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