Esther 9:15-21

New International Version

¹⁵ The Jews in Susa came together on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they put to death in Susa three hundred men, but they did not lay their hands on the plunder.^(A)

¹⁶ Meanwhile, the remainder of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces also assembled to protect themselves and get relief^(B) from their enemies.^(C) They killed seventy-five thousand of them^(D) but did not lay their hands on the plunder.^{(E) 17} This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting^(F) and joy.

¹⁸ The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.

¹⁹ That is why rural Jews—those living in villages—observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar^(G) as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.^(H)

Purim Established

²⁰ Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, ²¹ to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar