Esther 9:20-22

GOD’S WORD Translation

The Festival of Purim Instituted by Esther and Mordecai

²⁰ Now, Mordecai wrote these things down and sent official letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far. ²¹ He established the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as days they must observe every year. ²² They were to observe them just like the days when the Jews freed themselves from their enemies. In that month their grief turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He declared that these days are to be days for feasting and celebrating and for sending gifts of food to one another, especially gifts to the poor.