Purim Established
Overview
- Testament: Old
- Book: Esther
- Chapters: Esther 8-9
- Summary: After Haman was hanged and the Jews defeated their enemies on the 13th of Adar, Mordecai and Esther established Purim as a perpetual annual celebration on the 14th and 15th of Adar with feasting, joy, and giving of gifts.
Details
After Haman was exposed and hanged at Esther’s second banquet (Esther 7), the king gave Haman’s house to Esther and his signet ring to Mordecai. But the decree to destroy the Jews, sealed by the king’s ring, could not be simply revoked under Persian law. Esther wept before the king; he extended the golden scepter and told her to write in the king’s name on behalf of the Jews and seal it with his ring. A new decree was sent throughout the empire allowing the Jews to defend themselves, destroy their enemies, and plunder goods of attackers on the 13th of Adar.
On that day, the Jews throughout the empire gathered and killed those who attacked them. In Susa they killed 500 men on the 13th and another 300 on the 14th. In the provinces, 75,000 enemies were killed. The Jews in the provinces rested on the 14th and celebrated; the Jews in Susa rested on the 15th. Mordecai wrote to establish that the 14th and 15th of Adar should be kept annually as days of feasting and joy, of sending portions to one another and gifts to the poor. Esther confirmed these days with a second letter giving full authority. The feast was called Purim from the word Pur (lot), because Haman had cast the lot to determine the day of destruction — and the lot was reversed into a day of deliverance.
Key People Involved
- Mordecai — Co-author of the Purim decree; now the second-highest official in Persia
- Esther — Co-author of the confirming letter; risked her life to bring deliverance
- Ahasuerus — The king who authorized the counter-decree
Key Places
Important Verses
“Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter… the Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year.” — Esther 9:26-27
Cross-References
- Preceded by: Deliverance
- Related books: Esther
Notes
Purim remains one of the most joyous festivals in the Jewish calendar, observed in late winter with the reading of the scroll of Esther, costumes, noise-makers (graggers used to drown out Haman’s name), feasting, and giving to the poor. The festival is deliberately anti-solemn in its celebration — the book of Esther itself is festive in tone and structured as a comedy (in the literary sense: disorder resolved, enemies defeated, righteous vindicated). The establishment of a non-Mosaic festival by two people — a woman and a Diaspora Jew — is theologically notable: God’s preservation of his people generates new liturgy.