Without entering into shameful details, the author gives us a clear picture of the tragic fate of these girls. After having been taken to the king, a girl would spend the night with him. In the morning, she would go to live in another section of the harem, as she was no longer a young virgin (Esther 2:2) but the king’s concubine.
Most girls would be forgotten by the king and left to spend the rest of their days in his harem, living an aimless, childless existence, not to mention their permanent separation from their family at home, and possibly from a beloved fiancé.
14 In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.