Esther 9

Purim Celebrated (9:18–32)

18–19 Because the Jews of Susa had been given an extra day to kill their enemies, they celebrated their triumph on the fifteenth of Adar instead of the fourteenth. And so it has been up until the present time: the Jews of Jerusalem (as did the Jews of Susa) celebrate this event one day later than Jews living everywhere else.

20–28 In these verses, the writer describes how Mordecai established the Jewish festival called Purim¹⁴ (verse 26), which continues to be celebrated by faithful Jews to this day. He established the festival by sending letters to all the Jews throughout the Persian Empire (verse 20).

29–32 Next the writer relates how Queen Esther, together with Mordecai, wrote a second letter confirming Mordecai’s first letter (verses 20–22). In the second letter, something new is added: times of fasting and lamentation (verse 31). Accordingly, the Jews began to set aside the thirteenth day of Adar—the actual day of destruction that Haman had selected—as a time of mourning and fasting one day before the main celebration of Purim took place.

Purim was to be celebrated with feasting and joy (verse 17). In one sense, it might seem as if the Jews were gloating over the killing of seventy five thousand of their enemies. On the other hand, we must remember that the Jews in Esther’s time were essentially an exiled and persecuted people. Yes, many of them had gained positions of influence in the Persian Empire, but they were never without enemies. For the Jews, then, Purim was not so much a time of gloating as it was a time of thanksgiving, a time to remember how they had obtained relief from their enemies and how their sorrow [had] turned into joy (verse 22). God’s people must never have a spirit of gloating, of vengefulness or vindictiveness; our spirit must be one of thanksgiving and joy—and, above all, of forgiveness toward our enemies.