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But the Jews who were in Susa ^(C1)assembled on the thirteenth and ^(C2)the fourteenth ^(F1)of the same month, and they rested on the fifteenth ^(F1)day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

Therefore the Jews of the rural areas, who live in ^(C1)the rural towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a ^(F1)(C2)holiday for rejoicing and feasting and ^(C3)sending portions of food to one another.

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

obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day ^(F1)of the same month, annually,

because on those days the Jews ^(F1)rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was ^(C1)turned for them from grief into joy, and from mourning into a ^(F2)holiday; that they were to make them days of feasting and rejoicing, and ^(C2)sending portions of food to one another, and gifts to the poor.

So the Jews undertook what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.

For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to eliminate them, and ^(C1)had cast Pur, that is the lot, to disturb them and eliminate them.

But ^(C1)when it came ^(F1)to the king's attention, he commanded by letter ^(C2)that his wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews ^(C3)was to return on his own head, and that he and his sons were to be hanged on the wooden gallows.

Therefore they called these days Purim after the name of ^(F1)Pur. ^(F2)And ^(C1)because of the instructions in this letter, both what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them,

the Jews established and ^(F1)made a custom for themselves, their ^(F2)descendants, and for ^(C1)all those who allied themselves with them, so that ^(F3)they would not fail ^(C2)to celebrate these two days according to their ^(F4)regulation and according to their appointed time annually.

So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and these days of Purim were not to ^(F1)be neglected by the Jews, or their memory ^(F2)fade from their ^(F3)descendants.

Then Queen Esther, ^(C1)daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm ^(C2)this second letter about Purim.

He sent letters to all the Jews, ^(C1)to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, namely, words of peace and truth,

to establish these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established for them, and just as they had established for themselves and for their ^(F1)descendants, with ^(F2)instructions ^(C1)for their times of fasting and their mourning.

The command of Esther established these ^(F1)customs for ^(C1)Purim, and it was written in the book.