On the thirteenth day of the month Adar,.... This belongs to the preceding verse; and the meaning is, that on this day the Jews gathered together and slew so many thousand of their enemies as before related:
and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a feast of gladness: rejoicing that they were delivered out of the hand of their enemies, who hoped and expected on that day to have made an utter end of them; according to the Jewish canons l, mourning and fasting on this day were forbidden, but feasting and gladness were to be multiplied.
l Lebush, c. 697. Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 697.