so as to rejoice on that day, and send one another portions of
their banquets and meats.

9:20. And Mardochai wrote all these things, and sent them comprised in
letters to the Jews that abode in all the king's provinces, both those
that lay near and those afar off,

9:21. That they should receive the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the
month Adar for holy days, and always at the return of the year should
celebrate them with solemn honour:

9:22. Because on those days the Jews revenged themselves of their
enemies, and their mourning and sorrow were turned into mirth and joy,
and that these should be days of feasting and gladness, in which they
should send one to another portions of meats, and should give gifts to
the poor.

9:23. And the Jews undertook to observe with solemnity all they had
begun to do at that time, which Mardochai by letters had commanded to be
done.

9:24. For Aman, the son of Amadathi of the race of Agag, the enemy and
adversary of the Jews, had devised evil against them, to kill them and
destroy them; and had cast Phur, that is, the lot.

9:25. And afterwards Esther went in to the king, beseeching him that his
endeavours might be made void by the king's letters: and the evil that
he had intended against the Jews, might return upon his own head. And so
both he and his sons were hanged upon gibbets.

9:26. And since that time these days are called Phurim, that is, of
lots: because Phur, that is, the lot, was cast into the urn. And all
things that were done, are contained in the volume of this epistle, that
is, of this book:

9:27. And the things that they suffered, and that were afterwards
changed, the Jews took upon themselves and their seed, and upon all that
had a mind to be joined to their religion, so that it should be lawful
for none to pass these days without solemnity: which the writing
testifieth, and certain times require, as the years continually succeed
one another.

9:28. These are the days which shall never be forgot: and which all
provinces in the whole world shall celebrate throughout all generations:
neither is there any city wherein the days of Phurim, that is, of lots,
must not be observed by the Jews, and by their posterity, which is bound
to these ceremonies.

9:29. And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mardochai the
Jew, wrote also a second epistle, that with all diligence this day
should be established a festival for the time to come.

9:30. And they s