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.

Then the king prepared a large banquet for all his officials and his servants – it was actually Esther’s banquet. He also set aside a holiday for the provinces, and he provided for offerings at the king’s expense. ¹ 

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.

Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples ¹  pretended ²  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ³ 

At the celebration ¹  of their king, ²  his princes become inflamed ³  with wine; they conspire ⁴  with evildoers.

So David hid in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat his meal.

You have allowed his adversaries to be victorious, ¹  and all his enemies to rejoice.

The king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you cause the people to refrain from their work? ¹  Return to your labor!”

You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. ¹ 

So the two of them sat down and had a meal together. ¹  Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Why not stay another night and have a good time!” ² 

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 what the Lord says: “The heavens are my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where then is the house you will build for me? Where is the place where I will rest?

I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.”

I will put an end to all her celebration: her annual religious festivals, monthly new moon celebrations, and weekly Sabbath festivities – all her appointed festivals.

But the next morning, the second day of the new moon, David’s place was still vacant. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has Jesse’s son not come to the meal yesterday or today?”

“The Lord who rules over all says, ‘The fast of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth ¹  months will become joyful and happy, pleasant feasts for the house of Judah, so love truth and peace.’

Ask your own servants; they can tell you! May my servants find favor in your sight, for we have come ¹  at the time of a holiday. Please provide us – your servants ²  and your son David – with whatever you can spare.” ³ 

He said to them, “Go and eat delicacies and drink sweet drinks and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. ¹  Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

(2:1) ¹  Look! A herald is running ²  on the mountains! A messenger is proclaiming deliverance: ³  “Celebrate your sacred festivals, O Judah! Fulfill your sacred vows to praise God! ⁴  For never again ⁵  will the wicked ⁶  Assyrians ⁷  invade ⁸  you, they ⁹  have been completely destroyed.”