Esther 9:12-22

12 And the king said unto Esther the queen, "The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the palace in Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee. Or what is thy further request? And it shall be done."
13 Then said Esther, "If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows."
14 And the king commanded it so to be done; and the decree was given at Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons.
15 For the Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month of Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the spoil they laid not their hand.
16 But the other Jews who were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand; but they laid not their hands on the spoil.
17 On the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
18 But the Jews who were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
19 Therefore the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns made the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.
20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
21 to establish this among them: that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day of the same yearly,
22 as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.
Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.