Esther:9:18-32

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* But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof , and on the fourteenth thereof ; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested , and made it a day of feasting and gladness . * Therefore the Jews of the villages , that dwelt in the unwalled towns , made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting , and a good day , and of sending portions one to another . * 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 , * To stablish this among them , that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar , and the fifteenth day of the same , yearly , * 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 . * And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun , and as Mordecai had written unto them ; * 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 ; * 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 . * 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 , * 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 ; * 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 . * Then Esther the queen , the daughter of Abihail , and Mordecai the Jew , wrote with all authority , to confirm this second letter of Purim . * 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 , * 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 . * And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim ; and it was written in the book .

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