20 Now Mordekai recorded everything that had happened and sent letters to all the Yehudim (Jews) throughout the empire, in both the near provinces and the far away ones. 21 That decree established an annual holiday on the 14th and 15th of March every year,[fn] 22 because those were the days when the Yehudim no longer had to oppose their enemies and that was the month when their sorrow and mourning had changed into a good day. Now they were instructed to make them days of feasting and happiness, and sending of gifts—to each other but also to the needy. 23 The Yehudim had already celebrated those days that way, so they readily agreed to do what Mordekai had written.

24 Yes, Haman (the son of Hamedata, the Agagi), the enemy of all the Yehudim, had plotted to annihilate them, and he had thrown a ‘Pur’ (which is ‘lot’ or perhaps ‘dice’) choose the date to crush them and to destroy them. 25 But instead they would remember how Queen Ester stood in front of the king, and how he had said in the letter, “Let his evil plot that he plotted concerning the Yehudim return on his head, and let them execute him and his sons on the pole.” 26 Therefore they called this celebration ‘Purim’[fn] because of what they had experienced and because of the contents of Mordekai’s letter. 27 The Yehudim agreed to establish those two days as holidays and to observe them on those specific days as they’d been instructed. They agreed that they and their descendants and everyone who became part of the Jewish people would celebrate it every year. 28 So that’s why every Jewish family in every generation since has celebrated these days as holidays, wherever they live. The Jewish community and its descendants will always faithfully observe this festival of ‘Purim’.

29 Then Queen Ester (the daughter of Avihayil), with help from Mordekai the Yehudi (Jew), wrote a second letter about ‘Purim’. 30 He sent this second letter to all the Yehudim throughout the empire of King Ahashverosh (Ahasuerus/Xerxes), with words of peace and truth 31 to set up the ‘Purim’ celebration on the given dates according to what Mordekai the Yehudi and Queen Ester had determined for them. They also confirmed that the Yehudim should continue the times of fasting and mourning that they had established for themselves and their future descendants. 32 So Ester’s decree confirmed these regulations about ‘Purim’ and they were written into the official record.