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.
Ver. 31. To confirm these days of Purim] That they might by no manner of means be neglected, but that, renewing their resolutions and their reasons for the same, they might remain constant and firm and peremptory in well doing, cleaving to God with full purpose of heart, and sitting close unto the Lord without distraction, 1 Corinthians 7:35 .
And as they had decreed for themselves] Heb. For their souls; for the soul is the man, and the greatest thing in the least compass is a good mind in a man's body.
The matters of the fastings and their cry] Heb. The words of fasting, &c., that is, the vows they then uttered when they fasted and cried; that, if God would hear and help them, they would not fail to praise him in all best manner. Now, therefore, sith the vows of God were upon them, they should by keeping these days offer unto him thanksgiving, and pay their vows unto the Most High. Some think that the fasting and crying here mentioned referreth to those in Zechariah, Zechariah 7:5, in remembrance of the desolation of Jerusalem; that, as they fasted then, so they should feast now (Aben Ezra); God having fulfilled his promise there made, of turning their fasting into feasting, and added, "Therefore love the truth and peace," Zechariah 8:19 : confer Mordecai's words of peace and truth, supra, Esther 9:30 .