20 Now Mordekai recorded everything that had happened and sent letters to all the 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 Jews 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 Jews had already celebrated those days that way, so they readily agreed to do what Mordekai had written.

24 Yes, Haman (the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite), the enemy of all the Jews, 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 Esther stood in front of the king, and how he had said in the letter, “Let his evil plot that he plotted concerning the Jews 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 Jews 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 Esther (the daughter of Abihail), with help from Mordekai the Jew, wrote a second letter about ‘Purim’. 30 He sent this second letter to all the Jews throughout the empire of King Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth 31 to set up the ‘Purim’ celebration on the given dates according to what Mordekai the Jew and Queen Esther had determined for them. They also confirmed that the Jews should continue the times of fasting and mourning that they had established for themselves and their future descendants. 32 So Esther’s decree confirmed these regulations about ‘Purim’ and they were written into the official record.