Esther 9:17–22

¹⁷on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, even to rest on the fourteenth of it, and to make it a day of banquet and of joy. ¹⁸And the Jews who are in Shushan have been assembled, on the thirteenth day of it, and on the fourteenth of it, even to rest on the fifteenth of it, and to make it a day of banquet and of joy. ¹⁹Therefore the Jews of the villages, who are dwelling in cities of the villages, are making the fourteenth day of the month of Adar—joy and banquet, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.

²⁰And Mordecai writeth these things, and sendeth letters unto all the Jews who are in all provinces of the king Ahasuerus, who are near and who are far off, ²¹to establish on them, to be keeping the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day of it, in every year and year, ²²as days on which the Jews have rested from their enemies, and the month that hath been turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a good day, to make them days of banquet and of joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the needy.