Esther 9:20-32 - Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

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the Feast of Purim

Esther 9:20-32; Esther 10:1-3

The Feast of Purim-so called from Esther 3:7 -was held on the 14th and 15th of Adar, our February. The whole of this book was read on the previous evening in the synagogue. Whenever Haman's name was pronounced, the whole congregation made a terrible noise, and every voice shouted imprecations, “Let his name rot!” The reference to tribute in Esther 10:1 shows that this book is a historical document, preserved in the state archives, and probably written by a Jewish chronicler, who may have owed his position to Mordecai himself. The providence of God is clearly discernible in all the incidents recorded here. Through all human governments and events a divine purpose runs; and as God exalted Mordecai to honor and glory, so will He work for those who love Him, and so ultimately will He put all enemies under His feet.

Related Commentaries of Esther 9:20

Esther 9:20-32

20 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 consumec them, and to destroy them;

25 But when Esther camed 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.e 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,f 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 failg 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,h 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 themselvesi 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.