(20) В¶ And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, (21) To stablish 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 wherein 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 feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. (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 devised 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 device, 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) Wherefore 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 them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, 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 fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed. (29) Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of 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 seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry. (32) And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.
The appointment of an annual festival, to treasure up in the minds of the people, and to hand down to posterity, the signal deliverance the Lord had wrought for his people, forms a beautiful close to this interesting history. And the manner in which it was to be observed, in praises and acknowledgments to the Lord and liberality to men, serves to show the graciousness of the design. When our prayers, and our alms come up for a memorial before God; these are suitable things to blend together. The Jews of the present hour keep in remembrance this festival. But alas! how can they observe any deliverance with suitable acknowledgments, when ignorant of the great Deliverer; and unconscious that all offerings, to make them acceptable, can only be presented in and by him.