“Then the king held a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his officials and servants. He proclaimed a tax holiday in the provinces and gave gifts worthy of the king’s bounty.”
Esther 2:18 (BSB)
Context Reading
16She was taken to King Xerxes in the royal palace in the tenth month, the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17And the king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she found grace and favor in his sight more than all of the other virgins. So he placed the royal crown upon her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. 18Then the king held a great banquet, Esther’s banquet, for all his officials and servants. He proclaimed a tax holiday in the provinces and gave gifts worthy of the king’s bounty. 19When the virgins were assembled a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate. 20Esther still had not revealed her lineage or her people, just as Mordecai had instructed. She obeyed Mordecai’s command, as she had done under his care.