16 And the other Jews that were in the king’s provinces also gathered themselves together and stood for their lives and had rest from their enemies and slew of their foes seventy-five thousand, but they did not lay their hands on the spoil,
17 on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested and made it a day of banquet and gladness.
18 But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested and made it a day of banquet and gladness.
19 Therefore, the Jews of the villages that dwelt in the unwalled towns made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and banquet and a good day and of sending portions one to another.
20 And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21 to establish this among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
22 as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies 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 banquet and joy and of sending portions one to another and gifts to the poor.