To stablish [this] among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
Ver. 21. To establish this among them] sc. By a law, that they should yearly on those two days rest, and repeat among themselves that signal deliverance, propagating the remembrance of it to all posterity. Mordecai well knew that eaten bread is soon forgotten, that deliverances are usually but nine days' wonderment, that it is easy and ordinary with people to rob God and wrong themselves by their unthankfulness, which forfeiteth former mercies and forestalleth future, he therefore settleth it upon them, saith the text, statuendo eis ut facerent, he exacteth it of them by virtue of his office.
That they should keep the fourteenth day, and the fifteenth day] Both days, nam gaudet produci haec solennitas, for he rejoices to promote these feasts, as Austin said of the feast of Pentecost, such a solemnity should be drawn out to the full length, as the silkworm stretcheth forth herself before she spinneth her finest thread. Jehoshaphat and his people showed themselves unsatisfiable in their praises, which they presented again and again, 2 Chronicles 20:26,27. And good Hezekiah, when he observed in his subjects such a float of affections at the passover, and that they were in so good a frame, took counsel with them to keep other seven days, and they kept other seven days with gladness, 2 Chronicles 30:21,23. See with what a flood of words holy David poureth forth his soul in prayer, Psalms 145:1,8, as if therewith he would even fill up the distance between God and himself. Sometimes he seemeth to forget himself in point of praising God; for he will, like a bird, having got a note, record it over and over, as Psalms 136:1,26. And in the last psalm there are but six verses yet twelve hallelujahs. He concludeth, Let everything that hath breath, or, Let every breath praise the Lord, let it be as the smoke of the tabernacle, when peace offerings were offered. Tam Dei meminisse opus est quam respirare, saith Chrysostom, We have as much need to remember God as to take breath.