Esther 9:21

21 [He ordered] them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year

Esther 9:21 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 9:21

To stablish this among them
That it might be a settled thing, and annually observed in all future generations, what they had now done:

that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the
fifteenth day of the same, yearly;
as the former had been observed by the Jews in the provinces, and both by those in Shushan, ( Esther 9:17-19 )

as festivals in commemoration of their great deliverance; hence the fourteenth of Adar is called the day of Mordecai, being established by him;

``And they ordained all with a common decree in no case to let that day pass without solemnity, but to celebrate the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, which in the Syrian tongue is called Adar, the day before Mardocheus' day.'' (2 Maccabees 15:36)

Esther 9:21 In-Context

19 This explains why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as [a time of] rejoicing and feasting. It is a holiday when they send gifts to one another.

20 Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all of King Ahasuerus' provinces, both near and far.

21 [He ordered] them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year

22 because during those days the Jews got rid of their enemies. That was the month when their sorrow was turned into rejoicing and their mourning into a holiday. They were to be days of feasting, rejoicing, and of sending gifts to one another and the poor.

23 So the Jews agreed to continue the practice they had begun, as Mordecai had written them to do.