1. She was an orphan. She had no family connections. She offered the king no beneficial arrangement between families of wealth or nobility. Esther was an ordinary peasant girl—a nobody.

2. She was up against fierce competition. According to Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, this contest had attracted more than 1,000 young women. The palace was swarming with beautiful women. Esther wasn’t the only girl turning heads.

3. She was a Jewess. Jews were the people of a defeated nation—outsiders who had adopted Persian ways but were still not truly Persian. And if the news leaked out that she was a Jew, whatever slim chance she might have had of winning would immediately go down the tubes. She might be chosen for the harem but never for the crown.

The oil of myrrh was used to soften and lighten the skin. Since most of the women had worked outdoors, their skin was darkened by the sun and calloused from their labors.

To the Persians, fair skin was a sign of beauty. It took around twelve months of massage therapy and indoor living to soften and lighten the complexion of the women.8

Historians tell us that the king’s harem swam in perfumed water. The treatments of myrrh and make-up had become an intricate science of cosmetics. The Persians didn’t just wear make-up for beauty’s sake … they wore it for spiritual reasons.

The priests of Persia were the ones who developed and protected the formulas and practices of cosmetics. Because they saw the physical as merely a gateway to the spiritual, they truly believed that cleanliness was, indeed, next to godliness. Smell was believed to be connected with divine acceptance.

Women wore make-up around their eyes and bracelets around their arms, necks, and feet to ward off evil spirits. They were given rouge for their cheeks, all shades of lipstick, eyeliner, and fingernail polish because they believed that beauty brought them closer to the gods. And in a matter of months they would be led before a man most closely connected to the gods—the king himself.

Note the similar example of Joseph in the Egyptian prison, Gen. 39:20–21).

Some of the rabbinical additions tried to reconcile Esther’s character by having her claim she never violated the dietary kosher laws of the Hebrews. In one verse they actually have her pray these words to God: “You know everything; and you know that I hate the pomp of the wicked, and the bed of the uncircumcised and any foreigner.”12

Since the king entertained a new virgin every night for several years, it was unlikely that he would ever remember one whom he had ravished days, months, or even years before. In reality, the women in Ahasuerus’ contest were sentenced to a life of unfulfilled loneliness. (This information also helps the reader later to understand Esther’s hesitation in approaching the king unbidden.)

Esther’s initial audience with the king took place about four years later. It is likely that Ahasuerus consorted with over 1,000 virgins prior to his meeting with Esther

Esther might have gained the title of Queen, but she didn’t gain a husband. The king loved Esther more than all the women (Esther 2:17a), but he still loved the other women, too.

The text never says, “And after the crowning of Esther, the king ordered that his harem be released and his concubines, also.”

Not even close:

And when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai was sitting at the gate (Esther 2:19).

Why was there a second time? Esther had already won the crown—somebody stop the contest.

They did.

This second gathering of virgins had nothing to do with a contest. It had everything to do with the king’s ever-expanding harem.

Esther would occupy the throne as queen, but she would not be the sole occupant of the king’s bed. In fact, her role wouldn’t even allow her unhindered access to his bedroom … or his life.

Furthermore, Esther won the crown, but she didn’t win an honest relationship. She had a secret. In fact, it would be five years before she told her husband who she really was—and then it was almost too late.