21 telling them to observe the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar as holidays every year.
22 These were the days on which the Jews had rid themselves of their enemies; this was a month that had been turned from a time of grief and despair into a time of joy and happiness. They were told to observe these days with feasts and parties, giving gifts of food to one another and to the poor.
23 So the Jews followed Mordecai's instructions, and the celebration became an annual custom.
24 Haman son of Hammedatha — the descendant of Agag and the enemy of the Jewish people — had cast lots (or “purim”, as they were called) to determine the day for destroying the Jews; he had planned to wipe them out.
25 But Esther went to the king, and the king issued written orders with the result that Haman suffered the fate he had planned for the Jews — he and his sons were hanged from the gallows.
26 That is why the holidays are called Purim. Because of Mordecai's letter and because of all that had happened to them,
27 the Jews made it a rule for themselves, their descendants, and anyone who might become a Jew, that at the proper time each year these two days would be regularly observed according to Mordecai's instructions.