Esther 9:20-27

Tree of Life Version

Purim Festival

²⁰ Mordecai recorded these events and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹ urging them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar every year ²² as the days when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into celebration. These were to be days of feasting, celebration and sending presents of food to one another and giving gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews agreed to continue the commemoration they had begun, and do what Mordecai had written to them. ²⁴ For Haman, son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the pur—that is, the lot—to ruin and destroy them. ²⁵ But when it came to the king’s attention, he issued a written edict that the wicked scheme Haman^[a] had devised against the Jews should come back on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. (²⁶ For this reason, these days were called Purim, from the word pur.) Therefore because of everything in this letter and because of what they had seen and what had happened to them, ²⁷ the Jews established and took upon themselves, upon their descendants, and upon all who joined with them, that they would commemorate these two days in the way prescribed and at the appointed time every year.