Haman Is Hanged

So the king and Haman went in to ·eat [^Ldrink; ^Ca reference to elaborate feasting] with Queen Esther.

As the king’s ·order [edict; decree] went to every ·state [province] and city, there was joy and gladness among the Jews. In every ·state [province] and city to which the king’s ·order [edict; decree] went, they were having ·feasts [banquets] and ·celebrating [holidays]. And many ·people through all the empire [^Lpeoples of the land] ·became [professed/pretended to be] Jews, because ·they were afraid of the Jews [^Ldread of the Jews had fallen on them].

This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar [^CMarch 7]. On the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of joyful ·feasting [banqueting].

The Feast of Purim

But the Jews in Susa ·met [assembled] on the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the month of Adar [^Cand killed their enemies]. Then they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of joyful feasting [banqueting].

This is why the Jews who live in the country and small villages celebrate on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar [^CMarch 8]. It is a ·day [holiday] of joyful ·feasting [banqueting] and a day for exchanging ·gifts [gifts of food].

because that was when the Jews got rid of their enemies [^Ca descendant of Saul (2:5–6) had overcome an Amalekite and descendant of King Agag (3:1), thus completing God’s mandate (Deut. 23:3–6) that Saul failed to accomplish (1 Sam. 15)]. They were also to celebrate it as the month their ·sadness [sorrow] was turned to ·joy [gladness] and their ·crying for the dead [mourning] was turned into ·celebration [a holiday]. He told them to celebrate those days as days of joyful ·feasting [banqueting] and as a time for giving [presents of] food to each other and ·presents [gifts] to the poor [^CPurim thus became an annual festival still celebrated by the Jewish people today].