Three years after Queen Vashti’s removal, the Persian king Ahasuerus accepts his servants’ plan to gather beautiful young virgins to select a new queen. In Shushan, the Jewish exile Mordecai had raised his orphaned cousin Esther as his own daughter; after royal officials select her for the harem, she is eventually crowned queen, while concealing her Jewish identity at Mordecai’s command. Later, Mordecai—now an official at the king’s gate—uncovers an assassination plot by two royal chamberlains, reports it through Esther, and has their execution recorded in the royal chronicles. The events in this episode continue to reveal God’s hidden hand of protection over the Jewish nation.