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.
23. So the Jews accepted as tradition what they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them.
24. It was because Haman, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. (Haman was the son of Hammedatha and was from Agag.) Haman had the Pur (which means the lot) thrown ⌊in order to determine when⌋ to crush and destroy them.