“In the evening she went, and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s chamberlain, which kept the concubines: she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name.”
The return of the young women who had been with the king to the second house of the women unless the king delighted in her and called her by name establishes a hierarchy within the harem based on the king's favor and the possibility of repeated access or dismissal. This system of retention based on the king's pleasure reveals the precarious position of those in the harem and the arbitrary nature of power in the Persian court, where favor can be fleeting and whimsical. Yet within this arbitrary system, God's providence ensures that the right person is in position at the right moment to accomplish His redemptive purposes.
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