Esther 9:17–22

¹⁷This was done on ^athe thirteenth day of the month Adar, and ^bon the fourteenth ¹day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁸But the Jews who were in Susa ^aassembled on the thirteenth and ^bthe fourteenth ¹of the same month, and they rested on the fifteenth ²day and made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁹Therefore the Jews of the rural areas, who live in ^athe rural towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a ^1bholiday for gladness and feasting and ^csending portions of food to one another.

The Feast of Purim Is Established

²⁰Then Mordecai wrote down these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

²¹to establish among them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day ¹of the same month, annually,

²²because on those days the Jews obtained rest for themselves from their enemies, and it was a month which was ^aturned around for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a ¹holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness and ^bsending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.