Esther 09 The Feast of Purim

 Esther 09

The Feast of Purim

20 Then Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

21 Commanding them to observe the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same yearly,

22 as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month that was turned from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to days of merrymaking; that they might make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending gifts to one another and gifts to the poor.

23 So the Jews undertook to do what they had begun, and also what Mordecai had written to them.

24 For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had planned to destroy the Jews; and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to desolate and destroy them.

25 But when this came before the king, he sent letters that his evil plan, which he had devised against the Jews, might return upon his own head; and they hanged him and his sons on a gallows.

26 Therefore they called those days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore also because of all the words of that letter, and what they had seen concerning it, and what had happened to them,

27 The Jews confirmed and took upon themselves, and upon their descendants, and upon all who came near them, that they should not fail to observe these two days, according to what was written about them, and according to their appointed time, every year.

28 And that these days should be remembered and observed by every generation, family, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should be celebrated among the Jews, and that the memory of them should never cease among their descendants.

29 After this, Queen Esther, the daughter of Abigail, and Mordecai the Jew wrote with all their strength to confirm this letter of Purim a second time. 

30 And they sent letters to all the Jews in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and faithfulness. 

31 To confirm these days of Purim at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and as they themselves had established for themselves and their descendants, concerning the fasting and the cry for it. 3

2 And the letter of Esther established the matters concerning Purim; and it was written in a book.