15. The Jews in Susa assembled again on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and killed three hundred more there, but on the plunder no one attempted to take it.
16. But the rest of the Jews in the king’s provinces assembled to defend their lives. Some had rest from their enemies, while others killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them, but no one took from the plunder.
17. Because this occurred on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, they rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
18. Because the Jews in Susa had assembled on the thirteenth day and the fourteenth day of Adar, then on the fifteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.
19. Therefore, the Jews of the rural areas, who were living in the villages, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of rejoicing and feasting and a special day for sending portions of food to one another.
20. Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21. in order to institute for them the celebration for the fourteenth day and the fifteenth day of the month of Adar, each and every year,