And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near and far,
To establish among them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
As 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 to one another, and gifts to the poor.