¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in ^(A)the rural towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as ^(B)a holiday, and ^(C)as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

¹⁷ And in every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and ^(A)a holiday. ^(B)And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, ^(C)for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.