Esther 2:12 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

According to the manner of the women; who were kept so long, partly, for their better purification, as it here follows; partly, out of state, as that which became so great a king; and partly, that being so long in safe custody, the king might be sure that the child begotten upon any of them was his own. With oil of myrrh; which is useful both for making the skin exactly clean, and smooth, and solid, and for giving strength and rigour to the body. With sweet odours; which was the more necessary, because the bodies of men and women in those hot countries did of themselves yield very ill scents, if not corrected and qualified by art.

Esther 2:12

12 Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;)