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The Purim Festival Instituted
v. 20. And Mordecai wrote these things, a full account of all these happenings, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, wherever there were colonies and congregations of his countrymen,
v. 21. to stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, making the celebration of the festival an event occupying two days,
v. 22. as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, when their deliverance from their oppressors brought them lasting peace, 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, as manifestations of their great thankfulness.
v. 23. And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, the first celebration having already taken place in an outburst of spontaneous joy, and as Mordecai had written unto them,
v. 24. because Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, this being done through the astrologers and magicians, Est_3:7, to consume them, crush them out of existence, and to destroy them;
v. 25. but when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his, Haman's, wicked device which he devised against the Jews should return upon his own head, that he be caught in his own net,and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows, these two commands, as they were directed to the queen, being given in direct speech.
v. 26. Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur, the word for the lot which Haman had used in trying to carry out his murderous scheme. Therefore, for all the words of this letter, which was sent out by Mordecai, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, their own experience agreeing with the account as given by Mordecai, and which had come unto them, which they found out from other reliable sources,
v. 27. the Jews ordained and took upon them and upon their seed, all their descendants, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, not be passed by and forgotten, that they would keep these two days according to their writing and according to their appointed time every year, the time of celebration being determined by the order of Mordecai;
v. 28. and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail, should never cease, from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish, come to an end, from their seed.
v. 29. Then Esther, the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai, the Jew, wrote with all authority, with all emphasis, to confirm this second letter of Purim, the name of Mordecai giving the document full weight and legal power. The contents of this letter are not given, its existence being known to all Jews.
v. 30. And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, since they were aimed at the welfare of Israel and ware based upon facts,
v. 31. to confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai, the Jew, and Esther, the queen, had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, themselves perfectly willing to agree to the establishment of the new festival, the matters of the fastings and their cry, in remembrance of the lamentations which the Jews indulged in before they were delivered by the decree of Mordecai.
v. 32. And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book, that which related the events connected with the establishment of the festival. The Feast of Esther, or that of Purim, is celebrated by the Jews to this day. "On both days of the feast the modern Jews read over the Megillah, or Book of Esther, in their synagogues. The copy read must not be printed, but written on vellum in the form of a roll; and the names of the ten sons of Haman are written on it in a peculiar manner, being ranged, they say, like so many bodies on a gibbet. The reader must pronounce all these names in one breath. Whenever Haman's name is pronounced, they make a terrible noise in the synagogue. Some drum with their feet on the floor, and the boys have mallets with which they knock and make a noise. They prepare themselves for their carnival by a previous fast, which should continue three days, in imitation of Esther's; but they have mostly reduced it to one day. " It is perfectly right and proper that Christians celebrate also such festivals on which they remember some great teacher of the Church and the great things which the Lord did through such a chosen instrument of His grace, as in the case of Martin Luther.