Esther 9:21

21 calling on them to celebrate an annual festival on these two days.

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 So to this day, rural Jews living in remote villages celebrate an annual festival and holiday on the appointed day in late winter, when they rejoice and send gifts of food to each other.

20 Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to the Jews near and far, throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes,

21 calling on them to celebrate an annual festival on these two days.

22 He told them to celebrate these days with feasting and gladness and by giving gifts of food to each other and presents to the poor. This would commemorate a time when the Jews gained relief from their enemies, when their sorrow was turned into gladness and their mourning into joy.

23 So the Jews accepted Mordecai’s proposal and adopted this annual custom.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar.