Esther 9:17-19

17 This was ¹on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness.

18 But the Jews who were in Susa gathered ²on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested ³on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness.

19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in ⁴the rural towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, as ⁵a holiday, and ⁶as a day on which they send gifts of food to one another.

Esther 9:17-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ESTHER 9

In this chapter we have an account of the Jews gathering together, on the day fixed for their destruction, to defend themselves, which they did in all the provinces, and smote their enemies; Es 9:1-5. In Shushan the palace they slew the ten sons of Haman and five hundred men on that day, Es 9:6-11 and at the request of the queen they were allowed the next day to hang up his sons, when they slew three hundred men more, Es 9:12-15, in the provinces they slew 75,000 and those in one day only, and the following days they kept as a festival, but they in Shushan kept the two days following, Es 9:16-19, and which two days were established by Esther and Mordecai as festivals, to be observed as such in future ages, by the name of the days of Purim, Es 9:20-32.

Cross References

• 1. ver. 1
• 2. [See ver. 17 above]
• 3. ver. 21
• 4. Deuteronomy 3:5; Ezekiel 38:11; Zechariah 2:4
• 5. Esther 8:17
• 6. Nehemiah 8:10, 12