15 And the Jews were gathered who were in Susa, and on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed in Susa three hundred men, but they did not touch the plunder.
16 The rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered and defended their lives and found repose from their enemies. And they killed seventy-five thousand of those that hated them, but they did not touch the plunder.
17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. They rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and joy.
18 But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth day, and rested on the fifteenth day. And they made it a day of feasting and joy.
19 Therefore the Jews in the rural areas, living in the rural towns, made the fourteenth month of Adar a day of joy and feasting, a festive day of giving gifts to each other.
20 Mordecai wrote down these things and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all of the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21 to impose on them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day, every year,