Esther 9:20-32 - The Feast Of Purim

²⁰ And Mordecai wrote these things, - and sent letters unto all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near, and far off; ²¹ to establish for them, that they should continue to observe the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day thereof, - always year by year; ²² according to the days wherein the Jews found rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned for them, from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a happy day, - that they should make them days of banqueting and rejoicing, and of sending portions, every one to his neighbour, and gifts, unto the needy.

²³ And the Jews took upon them that which they had begun to do, - and that which Mordecai had written unto them; ²⁴ because, Haman, son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews, to cause them to perish, - and had cast Pur, the same, is the Lot, to terrify them, and to destroy them; ²⁵ but, by Esther's going in before the king, he commanded by letter, that his wicked plot which he had plotted against the Jews, should return, upon his own head, - and that he and his sons should be hanged upon the gallows. ²⁶ For this cause, called they these days Purim, after the name Pur, for this cause, - for all the words of this epistle, - and what they had seen concerning such a matter, and what had reached unto them. ²⁷ The Jews established and took upon themselves - and upon their seed, and upon all who should join themselves unto them, that it might not pass away, that they would continue to keep these two days, according to the writing concerning them and at their set time, - always year by year. ²⁸ And, these days, were to be remembered and to be kept, always from generation to generation, by every family, every province, and every city, - that, these days of Purim, should not pass away, out of the midst of the Jews, and, the memorial of them, not cease from their seed.

²⁹ Then wrote Esther the queen daughter of Abihail and Mordecai the Jew, with all authority, - to confirm this second epistle concerning the Purim; ³⁰ and he sent letters unto all the Jews, throughout the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, - words of peace and stability: ³¹ to establish these days of the Purim, in their set times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined upon them, and according as they had enjoined upon their own soul, and upon their seed, - the story of the fastings and of their outcry. ³² And, the command of Esther, confirmed the story of these Purim, - and it was written in a book.