Esther 9:31

31 and that they should keep the days of lots, and hallow them with joy in their time, as Mordecai and Esther had ordained; and they received the (rules for the) fastings, and the cries, and the days of lots, to be kept of themselves and of their seed, (and so that they would keep the Days of Purim, that is, the Days of Lots, and celebrate them with joy at their proper time, as Mordecai and Esther had ordained; just as they had received the rules for fasting, and mourning, or lamenting, to be kept by themselves, and by their descendants.)

Esther 9:31 Meaning and Commentary

Esther 9:31

To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed
The fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar:

according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them;
in the letters written and signed by them both:

and as they had decreed for themselves, and for their seed;
see ( Esther 9:27 ) ,

the matters of their fastings and their cry;
in commemoration of their deliverance from those distresses and calamities which occasioned fastings and prayers during the time of them; and to this sense is the former Targum; though it is certain the Jews observe the thirteenth day, the day before the two days, as a fast, and which they call the fast of Esther ^F25, and have prayers on the festival days peculiar to them; but the sense Aben Ezra gives seems best, that as the Jews had decreed to keep the fasts, mentioned in ( Zechariah 7:5 ) , so they now decreed to rejoice in the days of Purim.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Lebush & Schulchan, ut supra, (par. 1.) c. 686. sect. 1.

Esther 9:31 In-Context

29 And Esther, the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai, the Jew, wrote also the second epistle, that this solemn day should be hallowed afterward with all busyness. (And Queen Esther, Abihail's daughter, and Mordecai, the Jew, confirmed in writing with a second letter, that these feast days should be kept thereafter with all diligence.)

30 And they sent (their letter) to those Jews, that dwelled in an hundred and seven and twenty provinces of king Ahasuerus, that they should have peace, and receive the truth, (And they sent their letter to all the Jews, who lived in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of King Ahasuerus, so that they would have peace, and receive the truth,)

31 and that they should keep the days of lots, and hallow them with joy in their time, as Mordecai and Esther had ordained; and they received the (rules for the) fastings, and the cries, and the days of lots, to be kept of themselves and of their seed, (and so that they would keep the Days of Purim, that is, the Days of Lots, and celebrate them with joy at their proper time, as Mordecai and Esther had ordained; just as they had received the rules for fasting, and mourning, or lamenting, to be kept by themselves, and by their descendants.)

32 and they received all things that be contained in the story of this book, that is called Esther. (And so Esther's command confirmed these rules for Purim, or Lots, that be contained in this book. )