Purim Is Celebrated

²⁰ Mordecai wrote down these events. He sent letters to all the Jews all through the territories of King Xerxes. It didn’t matter whether the Jews lived nearby or far away. ²¹ Mordecai told them to celebrate the 14th and 15th days of the month of Adar. He wanted them to do it every year. ²² Mordecai told the Jews to celebrate the time when they got rest from their enemies. That was the month when their sadness was turned into joy. It was when their weeping turned into a day for celebrating. He wrote the letters to celebrate those days as times of joy. He wanted the people to enjoy good food. He told them to give presents of food to one another. He also wanted them to give gifts to people who were poor.

²³ So the Jews agreed to continue the celebrating they had started. They kept doing what Mordecai had written to them.

²⁹ So Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, wrote a second letter. She wrote it together with Mordecai the Jew. They wanted to give their full authority to this second letter about Purim. ³⁰ Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 territories of the kingdom of Xerxes. The letters had messages of kindness and hope in them. ³¹ The letters established the days of Purim at their appointed times. They spoke about what Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had ordered the people to do. Everything should be done in keeping with the directions the Jews had set up for themselves and their children after them. The directions applied to their times of fasting and sadness. ³² Esther’s order established the rules about Purim. It was written down in the records.