To confirm... enjoined... decreed. — The same Hebrew verb stands for the three different English verbs; it is also the stablish of Esther 9:21. To fix or settle represents the meaning.
The matters of the fastings and their cry. — These words come in rather awkwardly, and hence, and because they are passed over by the LXX., some have doubted their genuineness here. All Hebrew MSS., however, and all the other ancient versions, retain the words, and we must, therefore, suppose that the Jews throughout the empire had instituted fasts and lamentations, in addition to what Mordecai’s letter had enjoined, Thus we may probably connect this with the fast now observed on Adar 13.