The Beloved about Her Lover: He brought me ¹  into the banquet hall, ²  and he looked ³  at me lovingly. ⁴ 

Therefore they will now be the first to go into exile, ¹  and the religious banquets ²  where they sprawl on couches ³  will end.

The Beloved about Her Lover: While the king was at his banqueting table, ¹  my nard ²  gave forth its fragrance. ³ 

Due to the noise ¹  caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother ²  then entered the banquet room. She ³  said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken!

All of this happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. They then rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day for banqueting and happiness.

And David says, “Let their table become a snare and trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot take part in the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth days, and rested on the fifteenth, making it a day for banqueting and happiness.

This is why the Jews who are in the rural country – those who live in rural cities – set aside the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a holiday for happiness, banqueting, holiday, and sending gifts to one another.

as the time when the Jews gave themselves rest from their enemies – the month when their trouble was turned to happiness and their mourning to a holiday. These were to be days of banqueting, happiness, sending gifts to one another, and providing for the poor.