Greek Esther 9:18-32

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁸ The Jews who were in the city of Susa came together also on the fourteenth but did not rest. They celebrated the fifteenth with joy and gladness.^{(A) 19} On this account, then, the Jews who are scattered around the countryside keep the fourteenth of Adar as a joyful holiday and send presents of food to one another, while those who live in the large cities keep the fifteenth day of Adar as their joyful holiday, also sending presents to one another.^(B)

The Festival of Purim

²⁰ Mordecai recorded these things in a book and sent it to the Jews in the kingdom of Artaxerxes both near and far, ²¹ to institute these days as holidays and to keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar,^{(C) 22} for on these days the Jews got relief from their enemies. The whole month (namely, Adar) in which their condition had been changed from sorrow into gladness and from a time of distress to a holiday was to be celebrated as a time for feasting^[a] and gladness and for sending presents of food to their friends and to the poor.^(D)

²³ So the Jews accepted what Mordecai had written to them: ²⁴ how Haman son of Hammedatha, the Macedonian, fought against them, how he made a decree and cast lots^[b] to destroy them,^{(E) 25} and how he went in to the king, telling him to hang Mordecai, but the wicked plot he had devised against the Jews came back upon himself, and he and his sons were hanged.^{(F) 26} Therefore these days were called “Purim,” because of the lots (for in their language this is the word that means “lots”). And so, because of what was written in this letter and because of what they had experienced in this affair and what had befallen them, Mordecai established this festival,^{[c](G) 27} and the Jews took upon themselves, upon their descendants, and upon all who would join them to observe it without fail.^[d] These days of Purim should be a memorial and kept from generation to generation, in every city, family, and country.^{(H) 28} These days of Purim shall be observed for all time, and the commemoration of them shall never cease among their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther daughter of Aminadab along with Mordecai the Jew wrote down what they had done and gave full authority to the letter about Purim.^{[e](I) 31} And Mordecai and Queen Esther established this decision on their own responsibility, pledging their own well-being to the plan.^{[f] 32} Esther established it by a decree forever, and it was written for a memorial.