Esther 9:18-28

18 But the Jews who were in Susa ¹assembled on the thirteenth * and ²the fourteenth * of the same month, and they rested on the fifteenth * day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

19 Therefore * the Jews of the rural areas, who live in ³the rural towns, make the fourteenth * day of the month Adar a ⁴holiday * for rejoicing and feasting and ⁵sending portions of food to one another.

The Feast of Purim Instituted

20 Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

21 obliging * them to celebrate the fourteenth * day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth * day of the same month, annually *,

22 because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was ⁶turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday *; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and ⁷sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

23 Thus the Jews undertook what they had started to do, and what Mordecai had written to them.

24 For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the adversary of all the Jews, had schemed against the Jews to destroy them and ⁸had cast Pur, that is the lot, to disturb them and destroy them.

25 But ⁹when it came to the king's attention, he commanded by letter ¹⁰that his wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews, ¹¹should return on his own head and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

26 Therefore * they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. And ¹²because of the instructions in this letter, both what they had seen in this regard and what had happened to them,

27 the Jews established and made a custom for themselves and for their descendants and for ¹³all those who allied themselves with them, so that they would not fail ¹⁴to celebrate these two days according to their regulation and according to their appointed time annually *.

28 So these days were to be remembered and celebrated throughout every generation, every family, every province and every city; and these days of Purim were not to fail from among the Jews, or their memory fade from their descendants.

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Esther 9:18-28 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ESTHER 9

In this chapter we have an account of the Jews gathering together, on the day fixed for their destruction, to defend themselves, which they did in all the provinces, and smote their enemies; Es 9:1-5. In Shushan the palace they slew the ten sons of Haman and five hundred men on that day, Es 9:6-11 and at the request of the queen they were allowed the next day to hang up his sons, when they slew three hundred men more, Es 9:12-15, in the provinces they slew 75,000 and those in one day only, and the following days they kept as a festival, but they in Shushan kept the two days following, Es 9:16-19, and which two days were established by Esther and Mordecai as festivals, to be observed as such in future ages, by the name of the days of Purim, Es 9:20-32.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 14

1. Esther 8:11; Esther 9:2
2. Esther 9:21
3. Deuteronomy 3:5; Zechariah 2:4
4. Esther 9:22
5. Nehemiah 8:10
6. Psalms 30:11
7. Nehemiah 8:12
8. Esther 3:7
9. Esther 7:4-10
10. Esther 3:6-15
11. Psalms 7:16
12. Esther 9:20
13. Esther 8:17
14. Esther 9:20, 21

Footnotes 17

[a]. Lit "in it"
[b]. Lit "in it"
[c]. Lit "rejoicing and feasting and a good day and sending"
[d]. Lit "in it"
[e]. Lit "had rest from"
[f]. Lit "good day"
[g]. Lit "before the king, he"
[h]. Lit "schemed"
[i]. Lit "tree"
[j]. Lit "Therefore because of all the words"
[k]. Lit "received"
[l]. Lit "seed"
[m]. Lit "it should not pass away"
[n]. Lit "writing"
[o]. Lit "pass away"
[p]. Lit "end"
[q]. Lit "seed"