⁸ Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever^(A) you can find for them.’”

¹⁹ Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins^(A) to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women.^(B) And all the people went to their homes.

²² as the time when the Jews got relief^(A) from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy and their mourning into a day of celebration.^(B) He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food^(C) to one another and gifts to the poor.^(D)

¹² Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,^{(A) 14} and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”^(B)