The Feast of Purim

¹⁸ But the Jews who were at ^[a]Shushan assembled together ^(A)on the thirteenth day, as well as on the fourteenth; and on the fifteenth of ^[b]the month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar ^(B)with gladness and feasting, ^(C)as a holiday, and for ^(D)sending presents to one another.

²⁰ And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, ²¹ to establish among them that they should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar, ²² as the days on which the Jews had rest from their enemies, as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them, and from mourning to a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, of ^(E)sending presents to one another and gifts to the ^(F)poor. ²³ So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, ²⁴ because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, ^(G)had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them; ²⁵ but ^(H)when ^[c]Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that ^[d]this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should ^(I)return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

²⁶ So they called these days Purim, after the name ^[e]Pur. Therefore, because of all the words of ^(J)this letter, what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had happened to them, ²⁷ the Jews established and imposed it upon themselves and their descendants and all who would ^(K)join them, that without fail they should celebrate these two days every year, according to the written instructions and according to the prescribed time, ²⁸ that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city, that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, and that the memory of them should not perish among their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther, ^(L)the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this ^(M)second letter about Purim. ³⁰ And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews, to ^(N)the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, ³¹ to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had prescribed for them, and as they had decreed for themselves and their descendants concerning matters of their ^(O)fasting and lamenting. ³² So the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.