22
As the days wherein the Jewsrested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a goodday: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sendingportionsone to another, and gifts to the poor.
24
Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had castPur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
25
But when Esther camebefore the king, he commanded by letters that his wickeddevice, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26
Wherefore they called these daysPurim 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,
27
The Jewsordained, 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 twodays according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year*;
28
And that these days should be remembered and keptthroughout 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.
31
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.