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.
23. And the Jews accepting this began to do as Mordecai had written unto them.
24. Because Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them and to destroy them,
25. but when she came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26. Therefore, they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore, for all the words of this letter and of that which they had seen concerning this matter and which had come unto them,