²¹ He ·told [called on] them to celebrate every year on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, ²² because that was when the Jews got rid of their enemies [^Ca descendant of Saul (2:5–6) had overcome an Amalekite and descendant of King Agag (3:1), thus completing God’s mandate (Deut. 23:3–6) that Saul failed to accomplish (1 Sam. 15)]. They were also to celebrate it as the month their ·sadness [sorrow] was turned to ·joy [gladness] and their ·crying for the dead [mourning] was turned into ·celebration [a holiday]. He told them to celebrate those days as days of joyful ·feasting [banqueting] and as a time for giving [presents of] food to each other and ·presents [gifts] to the poor [^CPurim thus became an annual festival still celebrated by the Jewish people today].

²³ So the Jews agreed to do what Mordecai had written to them, and ·they agreed to hold the celebration every year [^Lto continue what they had begun].