Esther 9:20-28
Sorrow Turned to Joy
20Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Xerxes, both near and far,
21to establish among them an annual celebration on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar
22as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday. He wrote that these were to be days of feasting and joy, of sending gifts to one another and to the poor.
23So the Jews agreed to continue the custom they had started, as Mordecai had written to them.
24For Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast the Pur (that is, the lot) to crush and destroy them.
25But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Because of all the instructions in this letter, and because of all they had seen and experienced,
27the Jews bound themselves to establish the custom that they and their descendants and all who join them should not fail to celebrate these two days at the appointed time each and every year, according to their regulation.
28These days should be remembered and celebrated by every generation, family, province, and city, so that these days of Purim should not fail to be observed among the Jews, nor should the memory of them fade from their descendants.
Berean Standard Bible
Mordecai writes it down. That is the first thing this passage tells us, and it is the reason we have the book at all. He records what happened and sends letters to the Jews in every province, near and far, and what he asks them to do is keep two days every year.
as the days on which the Jews gained rest from their enemies and the month in which their sorrow turned to joy and their mourning into a holiday
Rest, not victory. He could have chosen the fighting to remember, and instead he chose the day after it, the one where it stopped.
The instructions are specific and they point outward. Feasting and joy, sending gifts to one another, and sending gifts to the poor. The celebration is not allowed to stay inside the house that is celebrating. Somebody who had nothing to do with any of it gets a parcel.
Then comes the summary of the whole affair, and it is very short. Haman plotted to destroy the Jews and cast the Pur to crush them. When it came before the king, he ordered that the scheme come back on Haman's own head, and that he and his sons be hanged.
Nine chapters in three sentences, and the name of the festival comes out of the middle of them.
Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur.
That is stranger than it looks. Pur was Haman's lot, the one he cast to fix the date of a slaughter, and it is his word. The festival that celebrates the rescue carries the name of the thing he threw.
The last part is about who this is for. They bound themselves, their descendants, and all who join them, which leaves the door standing open. And they said the memory of these days should not fade among their descendants, which is a family telling itself to keep telling the story.
How We Know
The name of the festival is explained by a word the book planted earlier.
Esther 3:7 introduces the Pur in the middle of the plot against the Jews, and glosses it for the reader as the lot.
Esther 9:24 repeats that Haman cast the Pur to crush and destroy them. Esther 9:26 then says these days are called Purim, from the word Pur.
A foreign term carried from a hostile setting into the name of a celebration, with the explanation held back until the end, strongly supports a book working from a practice that already had that name.
Questions
1 What does Mordecai do first, and why does it matter to us?
AnswerHe writes it down and sends it out. Without that we would have none of this. The book records its own origin in the middle of itself.
2 Which days does he tell them to keep, the fighting or the rest?
AnswerThe rest. He chooses the days when it stopped rather than the day they won. The letters call them the days the Jews gained rest from their enemies.
3 Along with feasting, they are told to send gifts to one another and to the poor. What does that do to a celebration?
AnswerIt stops it from being only about the people who were saved. Someone outside the story gets something out of it. A holiday that has to leave the house is a hard holiday to turn selfish.
4 The festival is named after Haman's lot. What do you make of that?
AnswerIt takes his word away from him. The thing he threw to choose a date for killing becomes the name of the party. Every year they say his instrument out loud and mean the opposite of what he meant.
What This Means for Us
They named the celebration after the weapon. Not after Esther, not after Mordecai, and not after the day they won. They called it by the name of the lot Haman threw when he was picking a date to destroy them.
Carry that. The thing which nearly destroyed them became the name of their gladness, said out loud once a year, on purpose, for generations, by people who had every reason to want the word buried instead.
Most families have a season they would rather not name. If God has brought you through one, consider naming it anyway, and telling the children, and marking the day. Sorrow turned to joy is not the same as sorrow forgotten.
Prayer
Father, thank you that you turn mourning into a holiday and give rest after trouble. Teach us to remember out loud, and to keep our celebrations open to people who had no part in them. Let this house be one that tells the story. Amen.