19So the Jews of the country places living in unwalled towns make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of feasting and joy and a good day, a day for sending offerings one to another.
20And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in every division of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, near and far,
21Ordering them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same month, every year,
22As days on which the Jews had rest from their haters, and the month which for them was turned from sorrow to joy, and from weeping to a good day: and that they were to keep them as days of feasting and joy, of sending offerings to one another and good things to the poor.
23And the Jews gave their word to go on as they had been doing and as Mordecai had given them orders in writing;
24Because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the hater of all the Jews, had made designs for their destruction, attempting to get a decision by Pur (that is, chance) with a view to putting an end to them and cutting them off;
25But when the business was put before the king, he gave orders by letters that the evil design which he had made against the Jews was to be turned against himself; and that he and his sons were to be put to death by hanging.
