Esther 9:22-25

Living Bible

²² to celebrate with feasting, gladness, and the giving of gifts these historic days when the Jews were saved from their enemies, when their sorrow was turned to gladness and their mourning into happiness.

²³ So the Jews adopted Mordecai’s suggestion and began this annual custom ^24-25 as a reminder of the time when Haman (son of Hammedatha the Agagite), the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy them at the time determined by a throw of the dice; and to remind them that when the matter came before the king, he issued a decree causing Haman’s plot to boomerang, and he and his sons were hanged on the gallows.