Ester 9

20 And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, 21 to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, 22 as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of *Neh. 8:10; Esth. 9:19sending presents to one another and gifts to the *(Deut. 15:7–11); Job 29:16poor. 23 So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, 24 because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, *Esth. 3:6, 7, 9:26had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them; 25 but *Esth. 7:4–10; 8:3; 9:13, 14when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should *Esth. 7:10return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

26 So they called these days Purim, after the name Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of *Esth. 9:20this letter, what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had happened to them, 27 the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would *Esth. 8:17; (Is. 56:3, 6); Zech. 2:11join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, 28 that these days shouldbe remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail tobeobserved among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.

29 Then Queen Esther, *Esth. 2:15the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this *Esth. 8:10; 9, 21second letter about Purim. 30 And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews, to *Esth. 1:1the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, 31 to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and their descendants concerning matters of their *Esth. 4:3, 16fasting and lamenting. 32 So the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.