Ester 9

The Feast of Purim Instituted

20 Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21 obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day *9:21 Lit in itof the same month, annually, 22 because on those days the Jews *9:22 Lit had rest fromrid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from grief into joy, and from mourning into a *9:22 Lit good dayholiday; that they were to make them days of feasting and rejoicing, and sending portions of food to one another, and gifts to the poor.

23 So the Jews undertook what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them. 24 For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to eliminate them, and had cast Pur, that is the lot, to disturb them and eliminate them. 25 But when it came *9:25 Lit before the king, heto the king’s attention, he commanded by letter that his wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews was to return on his own head, and that he and his sons were to be hanged on the wooden gallows.26 Therefore they called these days Purim after the name of *9:26 Akkadian for lotPur. *9:26 Lit Therefore because of all the wordsAnd because of the instructions in this letter, both what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them, 27 the Jews established and *9:27 Lit receivedmade a custom for themselves, their *9:27 Lit seeddescendants, and for all those who allied themselves with them, so that *9:27 Lit it would not pass awaythey would not fail to celebrate these two days according to their *9:27 Lit writingregulation and according to their appointed time annually. 28 So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and these days of Purim were not to *9:28 Lit pass from the midst ofbe neglected by the Jews, or their memory *9:28 Lit endfade from their *9:28 Lit seeddescendants.

29 Then Queen Esther, daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim. 30 He sent letters to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, namely, words of peace and truth, 31 to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and just as they had established for themselves and for their *9:31 Lit seeddescendants, with*9:31 Lit wordsinstructions for their times of fasting and their mourning. 32 The command of Esther established these *9:32 Lit wordscustoms for Purim, and it was written in the book.