The Feast of Purim Instituted

Because the Jews in Susa fought on both the thirteenth and fourteenth days, they rest on the fifteenth and make it a day of feasting and joy. The rural Jews, by contrast, observe the fourteenth day as a holiday marked by joy, feasting, and gifts to one another.

T¹⁸he Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth days of the month. So they rested on the fifteenth day, making it a day of feasting and joy. ¹⁹This is why the rural Jews, who live in the villages, observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting. It is a holiday for sending gifts to one another.

Mordecai records these events and sends letters to all the Jews throughout Xerxes' provinces, establishing an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar. These are to remember the days when sorrow turned to joy and mourning to holiday, with feasting, gifts to one another, and gifts to the poor, and the Jews agree to continue the custom.

²⁰Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far, ²¹to establish among them an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar ²²as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor. ²³So the Jews agreed to continue the custom they had started, as Mordecai had written to them.

The chapter recalls how Haman plotted against the Jews and cast the Pur, the lot, to crush and destroy them, but when the matter came before the king, the wicked scheme returned on Haman's own head. For this reason the days are called Purim, from the word Pur.

²⁴For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them. ²⁵But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur.

The Jews bind themselves, their descendants, and all who join them to keep these days every year so the memory will not fade. Esther and Mordecai write again with full authority to confirm Purim, and Esther's decree finally establishes the regulations in the record.

²⁷Because of all the instructions in this letter, and because of all they had seen and experienced, the Jews bound themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should not fail to celebrate these two days at the appointed time each and every year, according to their regulation. ²⁸These days should be remembered and celebrated by every generation, family, province, and city, so that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, nor should the memory of them fade from their descendants. ²⁹So Queen Esther daughter of Abihail, along with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter concerning Purim. ³⁰And Mordecai sent letters with words of peace and truth to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Xerxes, ³¹in order to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established them and had committed themselves and their descendants to the times of fasting and lamentation. ³²So Esther’s decree confirmed these regulations about Purim, which were written into the record.