Then Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus at his royal residence in the tenth ¹  month (that is, the month of Tebeth) in the seventh ²  year of his reign.

Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples ¹  pretended ²  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ³