Esther 9:16-22

16But the other Jews that were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, and defended their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the spoil, 17On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.1 18But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day of the month, and on the fourteenth of it; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness. 19Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.

20And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far, 21To establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, 22As the days in which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.