Therefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore, according to all the words of this letter, and for what they had seen concerning this matter and what had happened to them,
The verse looks back and explains a name. The Jews called their two days of feasting Purim, after "Pur" — the lot Haman cast when he picked a date to wipe out the Jews. It also ties the yearly feast to three things: a letter, what the people had faced, and what had happened to them.
The name comes straight from "Pur," the lot Haman cast. It fixes the feast to the very moment his plot began.
A feast, meaning 'lot or lots.' Haman cast lots to find a favourable day for the destruction of the Jews. When that danger passed, the Jews kept a yearly feast to remember their deliverance. Esther 3:7; Esther 9:24-32. It fell on the 14th and 15th of Adar.
So the Jews named their rescue after the lot that was meant to destroy them.
Naming the feast after Pur only makes sense if the lot itself was not random. Commentators point to the delay the lot produced. That gap is where the whole rescue happened.
God overruled among His people how the lot should fall... He could also direct it among the nations to work out His own purposes, as He did in the case of Haman. The result delayed his plan for so long that Esther had time to act. New decrees could go out all over the kingdom, so that the Jews might be saved from destruction. Esther 3:7; Esther 9:24.
What Haman read as a lucky day, the Jews traced to the Lord.
Very likely the Jews were familiar with Solomon's proverb, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:33). Haman had expected demonic power to back him up. But no doubt the Jews recognised that the Lord had intervened with His own clear decision. Yet, even though the Jews surely did recognise the Lord's hand here, God did not allow His name to be even mentioned publicly.
The book of Esther never mentions God, and the founding of Purim does not break the silence either. Writers see that silence as deliberate.
In the book of Esther we have no more than the witness of secret providence in the face of the most extreme dangers. It looks on to that grand public outcome. Meanwhile it produces a striking and lasting ordinance of Him who delivers though unseen.
The verse grounds the feast in what "was written in this letter" — Mordecai's instruction to the Jews.
It is Mordecai who, like the future Messiah, orders joy and rest. The Jews submit themselves to the written word of a man who had been unknown and ignored by all, including themselves. God had now exalted him in the sight of everyone.
The verse gives two more reasons: what they had faced, and what had happened to them. Word and experience agree.
Purim is the only feast this book records, and it reaches far beyond its own day.
The memory of these days lives on from age to age. This book mentions only one feast, the feast of Purim: a new feast which will last for ever in memory of the deliverance of God's earthly people. Esther and Mordecai are in perfect harmony with the people; what Esther and Mordecai establish, the people establish for themselves... This account ends by leading us to the dawn of the glorious time that follows deliverance, and it leads us prophetically to the threshold of the millennial reign of Christ.
Readers sometimes ask whether this feast turns up again later in the Bible.
The New Testament never mentions this feast by name. Some suppose John 5:1 refers to it, but there is no hint of that, and such a feast did not call the Lord to go to Jerusalem.
A memorial can survive for centuries and still lose its point. Later Jewish tradition shows how.
The Talmud lays down that at the feast of Purim a man should drink until he cannot tell the difference between "Blessed be Mordecai" and "Cursed be Haman." "Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?" Judaism, and Christendom where Christ is ignored, both sink into the driest ditch of paganism. Both dare to approve a wild carnival where there had once been a holy feast.
- Pur — the feast carries the name of the enemy's lot, so each year the rescue recalls the plot that failed.
- Overruled — God directed how the lot fell. The delay it created gave Esther and the new decrees time to work.
- Unnamed — God is never mentioned, in the book or in the feast; Purim stands as a lasting ordinance of the One who delivers unseen.
- Written — the Jews kept the days because of a letter, what they had faced, and what had happened to them; word and experience together.
- Guarded — a feast can outlive its meaning. Drinking until Mordecai and Haman sound alike turns a holy day into a carnival.
the Jews ordained and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would observe these two days according to their writing and according to their fixed time, every year;
God issues no command here: the Jews bind themselves, their children, and everyone who joined them to keep two days every year without fail. Why is the feast named after Haman's lot, who are these outsiders who joined them, and why is it called a feast of the Jews and not a feast of the LORD?
The verse binds their descendants as well, and fixes the time every year. One writer explains what drove them to it.
In this way the Jews set up the feast of Purim and laid it on themselves and their descendants. They took on the urgent responsibility of celebrating these days every year. The feast continued in every family of the Jews, wherever they were, so that the memory of this great occasion would never fade from their minds.
The feast takes its name from Haman's lot. The same writer asks who really decided that lot.
At this time the Jews established a feast of two days and called it Purim, after Pur, the lot cast by Haman with the aim of destroying the Jews. Very likely the Jews knew Solomon's proverb, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD" (Proverbs 16:33). Haman had expected demonic power to back him up. But no doubt the Jews recognised that the Lord had stepped in with His own clear decision. Yet, while the Jews surely did recognise the Lord's hand in this, God still did not allow His name to be mentioned in public.
The verse binds "all who joined them" as well. One writer sees in them a coming day when nations do the same.
Many people became Jews, as the last verse of this chapter records. In the same way, in that coming day ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew and say, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you" (Zechariah 8:23). "And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day" (Zechariah 2:11). The heroic deed of Esther brought about all this blessing for the Jews in Persia. She went through a great struggle and risked her life so that her people might be saved. And the promised blessings and glory can come to the people Israel only through Him who gave His life, the true King and Shepherd of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Commentators differ on how to weigh this new feast. One looks hard at what it is called.
So the history here speaks of Purim as a feast of the Jews, not a "feast of the LORD." Leviticus 23 speaks of "the appointed feasts of the LORD." But John 2:13 calls the Passover "the Passover of the Jews," and John 7:2 calls another feast of the Lord "the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles." Why? Because it was not primarily the Lord's honour that the Jews sought, but their own enjoyment. What sad disrespect for the Lord's feasts!
Another writer looks ahead. He sees one feast that lasts, and full agreement among the people.
The memorial of these days carries on from age to age. This book mentions only one feast, the feast of Purim. It is a new feast which will last for ever in memory of the deliverance of God's earthly people. There is perfect harmony between Esther, Mordecai and the people. What Esther and Mordecai establish, the people establish for themselves (v. 31).
The feast lasted. One writer ties what it became to the book's silence about God's name.
Notice again that the book keeps to its own deeply marked character. Even here it does not name Him whom it would normally be the highest duty to proclaim. Yet man's word makes the complete difference plain. The Talmud lays down that at the feast of Purim a man should drink until he cannot tell the difference between "Blessed be Mordecai" and "Cursed be Haman."
- Lot. Haman cast the lot to destroy the Jews. The decision behind it was the Lord's, and the feast now carries the name of the very thing that failed.
- Vow. No command came down from God here. The Jews laid the duty on themselves, their children, and all who joined them, so the memory would not fade.
- Reach. The duty reaches past one nation to those who joined them. It points to a day when nations say to a Jew, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."
- Silence. Even as the feast is founded, the One who saved them is not named. That silence runs through the whole book.
- Drift. The feast was kept from age to age. But later tradition turned it into drinking that blurs the blessing on Mordecai and the curse on Haman.
and that these days should be remembered and observed throughout every generation, in every family, every province, and every city, and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them cease from among their seed.
Two days of rescue could have faded with the people who lived through them. Instead they became a yearly feast for every generation and every place. Two questions follow. What were the Jews remembering? And why does a feast the Lord never appointed still stand?
The days carry the name of the weapon the enemy used against the Jews. A dictionary entry gives the facts:
A feast, meaning "lot" or "lots." Haman cast lots to find a favourable day for the destruction of the Jews. When that plan was stopped, the Jews marked their deliverance with a yearly feast. It fell on the 14th and 15th of Adar. The Jews still keep the feast. They read the Book of Esther, and they pronounce curses on Haman and on his wife, and blessings on Mordecai and on Harbonah.
Naming the feast after the lot raises the question of who really controlled it. One writer answers that, and points to what God still kept out of public view:
The two-day feast the Jews established at this time was called Purim. The name refers to Pur, the lot Haman cast in order to destroy the Jews. Very likely the Jews knew Solomon's proverb, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Proverbs 16:33). Haman had expected demon power to back him up. But no doubt the Jews recognised that the Lord had stepped in with His own clear decision. They surely did recognise the Lord's hand in this. Yet God still did not allow anyone to even mention His name publicly.
The verse describes a duty the Jews took on and handed to their children:
So the Jews established the feast of Purim and imposed it on themselves and their descendants. They took on the urgent responsibility of celebrating these days every year. The feast continued in every family of the Jews, wherever they were, so that they would never let the memory of this great occasion fade from their minds (vv. 26-28).
The verse names every province and city. That reach was the whole empire — and the keeping went further still:
Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Persia. His aim was to confirm the yearly observance of the Feast of Purim at the appointed time. Esther was joined with this decree as well. From that time Israel has gone on observing the Feast of Purim, even where Jews are scattered in other lands.
Reading the book kept the memory alive, and it did its work in the hardest times:
The Jews read Esther during the Purim feast, on 14th and 15th Adar (February/March). So it is one of the best-known Old Testament books among the Jews. It also has the oldest surviving copies. The book of Esther has supported the Jewish people in their national hope, above all in days of persecution.
Purim is not listed among the feasts God appointed. Commentators note the distinction and see something telling in it:
So the history here speaks of Purim as a feast of the Jews, not a "feast of the Lord." Leviticus 23:1 speaks of "The Feasts of the Lord." But in John 2:13 the Passover is called "the Passover of the Jews," and another feast of the Lord was called "the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles" (John 7:2). Why? Because the Jews were not seeking the Lord's honour first of all, but their own enjoyment.
Later tradition turned the memorial into something else:
The Talmud lays down that at the feast of Purim a man should drink until he cannot tell the difference between "Blessed be Mordecai" and "Cursed be Haman." "Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?" (Isaiah 2:22). Judaism, and Christendom where Christ is ignored, both sink into the driest ditch of heathenism. Both dare to sanction a drunken carnival where there had been a holy feast.
One writer reads this lasting feast as a signpost to what comes after deliverance:
The memorial of these days is carried on from age to age. This book mentions only one feast, the feast of Purim. It is a new feast which will last for ever, in memory of the deliverance of God's earthly people... So ends this account. It leads us to the dawn of the glorious time that follows deliverance, and leads us prophetically to the threshold of the millennial reign of Christ.
- Threat — The days are named after Pur, the lot Haman cast to pick a day to destroy the Jews. The name of the weapon became the name of the celebration.
- Rescue — Behind the lot stood the Lord. His decision overturned Haman's. Yet God kept His own name out of public view.
- Record — The Jews bound themselves and their children to keep these days every year. The memory of the rescue must not fade.
- Reach — Letters went out to 127 provinces. The feast has been kept ever since, wherever the people were scattered. The book, read aloud, held up their hope under persecution.
- Reign — Commentators weigh Purim differently. It is a feast "of the Jews," not one the Lord appointed, and it later slid into a drunken carnival. Yet it is also read as a memorial that points on to the reign of Christ.