Esther 9:18-32 - The Origins Of The Feast Of Purim

¹⁸ But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. ¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending presents one to another.

²⁰ And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹ To establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, ²² As the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feast

²³ And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them; ²⁴ Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; ²⁵ But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked plot, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. ²⁶ Therefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them, ²⁷ The Jews ordained, and took upon themselves, and upon their descendants, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and according to their appointed time every year; ²⁸ And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fall into disuse among the Jews, nor the memory of them perish from their descendants.

²⁹ Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter about Purim. ³⁰ And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, ³¹ To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their descendants, concerning the matters of the fastings and their lamentations. ³² And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.