Ester 9

20 And Mordecai wrote all these things, and he sent all these things written by letters to the Jews, that dwelled in all the provinces of the king, as well to Jews dwelling nigh as far, [or both in nigh set and afar],

21 that they should receive and hold for their feast days the fourteenth and the fifteenth days of the month [of] Adar, and ever[more] when the year turneth again, to hallow these days with solemn honour;

22 for in those days the Jews avenged themselves of their enemies, and then their mourning and their sorrow were turned into gladness and joy; and therefore these days should be days of feasts, and of gladness, and that they should send, each to other, parts of meats, and give little gifts to poor men.

23 And the Jews received into a solemn custom all those things, which they began to do in that time, and which things Mordecai had command-ed by letters to be done.

24 For Haman, the son of Hamme-datha, of the kindred of Agag, the enemy and adversary of Jews, thought evil against them, to slay them, and to do them away, and he cast pur, that is to say in our language, lot, to do it.

25 And after this Esther entered in to the king, and besought, that the enforcings or endeavours of Haman should be made void by the letters of the king, and that the evil, which he had thought against the Jews, should turn again into his head. Forsooth they hanged on the cross both him and his sons.

26 And from that time these days were called Purim, that is, of lots, for pur, that is, lot, was sent, or cast, into a vessel; and the Jews received upon themselves, and upon their seed, and upon all men that would be coupled to their religion, all things that were done, and be contained in the volume of the epistle, that is, of this book,

27 and which things they suffered, and which things were changed after-ward, so that it be not leaveful to any man to pass these two days without solemnity, which days the scripture witnesseth, and certain times ask, while the years come continually one after another.

28 These be the days, which never any forgetting shall do away, but by all generations all the provinces, that be in all the world, shall hallow them; neither there is any city, in which the days of Purim, that is, of lots, shall not be kept of [the] Jews, and of the generation of them, which is bound to these ceremonies.

29 And Esther, the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai, the Jew, wrote also the second epistle, that this solemn day should be hallowed afterward with all busyness.

30 And they sent their letter to those Jews, that dwelled in an hundred and seven and twenty provinces of king Ahasuerus, that they should have peace, and receive the truth,

31 and that they should keep the days of lots, and hallow them with joy in their time, as Mordecai and Esther had ordained; and they received the rules for the fastings, and the solemn cries, and the days of lots, to be kept of themselves and of their seed,

32 and they received all things that be contained in the story of this book, that is called Esther.