Esther 9:31

31 He did this in order to establish these days of Purim at the appointed time. Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther established them for themselves, as they had established for themselves and their descendants the practices of fasting with sadness.

Esther 9:31 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 9:31

To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed
The fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar:

according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them;
in the letters written and signed by them both:

and as they had decreed for themselves, and for their seed;
see ( Esther 9:27 ) ,

the matters of their fastings and their cry;
in commemoration of their deliverance from those distresses and calamities which occasioned fastings and prayers during the time of them; and to this sense is the former Targum; though it is certain the Jews observe the thirteenth day, the day before the two days, as a fast, and which they call the fast of Esther ^F25, and have prayers on the festival days peculiar to them; but the sense Aben Ezra gives seems best, that as the Jews had decreed to keep the fasts, mentioned in ( Zechariah 7:5 ) , so they now decreed to rejoice in the days of Purim.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Lebush & Schulchan, ut supra, (par. 1.) c. 686. sect. 1.

Esther 9:31 In-Context

29 Abihail's daughter Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew wrote with full authority in order to establish with this second letter the well-known celebration of Purim.

30 Mordecai sent official documents granting peace and security to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Xerxes.

31 He did this in order to establish these days of Purim at the appointed time. Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther established them for themselves, as they had established for themselves and their descendants the practices of fasting with sadness.

32 Esther's command had established these practices of Purim, and they are written in a book.