And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as
Mordecai had written unto them.
] They engaged to keep these two days as festivals annually, as they had at this time done; not in a religious but in a civil way, not as parts of religious worship, and as additions to and innovations of the law, but by way of commemoration of a civil benefit which they had received; and yet we find in later times that this was scrupled by some as an innovation; for we are told F18 that there were eighty five elders, and more than thirty of them prophets, who were distressed about this matter, fearing it was an innovation.