What is the Feast of Purim?
Answered from the commentary of Leslie M. Grant, Morrish Bible Dictionary, Arend Remmers and 7 others
The Feast of Purim is the two-day annual feast the Jews established to commemorate their deliverance from Haman's plot to destroy them. It takes its name from Pur, "the lot," which Haman cast to find an auspicious day for that destruction (Esther 3:7). Haman resorted to it as a superstitious seeker of a lucky day, and his trust was really in Satan. Yet "the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord" (Proverbs 16:33). The lot fell on the twelfth month, eleven months off, which left time for Esther to act and for a fresh decree to go out so that the Jews could stand for their lives. When the day came, the Jews in the villages rested on the 14th of Adar and those in Shushan on the 15th, each making it a day of feasting and gladness. Mordecai therefore wrote that both days were to be kept every year as the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies, when the month was "turned to them from sorrow to gladness." They were to be days of feasting, of sending portions one to another, and of gifts to the poor. Esther wrote with all authority to confirm this (Esther 9:20-32). The Jews bound it on themselves and their descendants in every family, province and city, so that the memory of the deliverance would not fade. It is still kept, mostly by the public reading of the book of Esther and the giving of gifts. At that reading curses are pronounced on Haman and blessings on Mordecai. The names of Haman's ten sons are read in one breath. The account of Mordecai's honour is read in a raised and triumphant voice.
The authors differ on the standing of the feast. One calls it a feast "not apparently ordered of God," like the Feast of Dedication. Another stresses that Scripture calls it a feast of the Jews, not a "feast of the Lord," and that God's name is not mentioned even in its institution, because He was publicly disowning a disobedient people while caring for them behind the scenes. Even so, the Jews surely recognised the Lord's hand in their rescue. Kelly, by contrast, calls it a "holy feast" and "a standing ordinance of Him Who delivers though unseen". He grieves that the Talmud turned it into "a revelling carnival" by bidding men drink until they could not tell "Blessed be Mordecai" from "Cursed be Haman." Some have supposed that the unnamed feast of John 5:1 was Purim. Most of these authors reject this, because such a feast had no divine claim to call the Lord up to Jerusalem. One allows that it may have been Purim. Several also read the feast prophetically. The Jewish year begins with a feast of deliverance from Egypt and ends with this one, with Haman as a type of the Antichrist. The Jews' rest from their enemies points to the end of the time of Jacob's trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) and Israel's entry into its sabbath rest. In this way Purim stands as a lasting memorial of the deliverance of God's earthly people, leading to the threshold of Christ's millennial reign.
Verses: Proverbs 16:33, John 5:1, Jeremiah 30:7, Esther 9:20, Esther 9:21, Esther 9:22, Esther 9:23, Esther 9:24, Esther 9:25, Esther 9:26, Esther 9:27, Esther 9:28, Esther 9:29, Esther 9:30, Esther 9:31, Esther 9:32, Esther 9:17, Esther 9:18, Esther 9:19, Esther 3:7, Esther 3:12, Esther 3:13, Esther 8:11, Esther 8:12, Esther 9:1, Esther 4:14, Esther 8:16, Esther 8:17, Esther 10:3
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What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
A feast, signifying 'lot or lots.' Haman cast lots to find an auspicious day for the destruction of the Jews. On this being averted their deliverance was commemorated by an annual feast. Esther 3:7; Esther 9:24-32. It fell on the 14th and 15th of Adar. This feast is not mentioned by name in the N.T. though some suppose it to be alluded to in John 5:1; but of this there is no intimation, and such a feast did not call the Lord to go to Jerusalem. The feast is still kept by the Jews: the Book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and on his wife; and blessings on Mordecai, and on Harbonah.
There are two other Feasts mentioned as yearly which were not apparently ordered of God. The 25th of Chisleu, the Feast of Dedication, instituted by Judas Maccabeus when the temple was re-dedicated after being defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes, B.C. 165. John 10:22. The other, the Feast of Purim, on the 14th and 15th of Adar, when the Jews were delivered from the threatened destruction plotted by Haman. Esther 9:21, 26.
In His providence God brings the young Jewess Hadassah (Esther) to the Persian court. She succeeds in preventing the threatening destruction of all her race by Haman, who was set above all the princes. Haman is hanged and Esther's cousin Mordecai, the pious Jew and Haman's opponent, receives his position. After the Jews' revenge upon their enemies the days of Purim (pur = Persian: lot) are established in remembrance of these events.
The feast of two days at this time established by the Jews was called Purim, referring to Pur, the lot cast by Haman with the object of destroying the Jews. Very likely the Jews were conversant 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 demon power to be exerted in backing him up; but no doubt the Jews recognized that the Lord had intervened with His own clear decision. Yet, while the Jews surely did recognize the Lord's hand in this, still, God did not allow His name to be even mentioned publicly.
The feast of Purim was thus established and imposed by the Jews upon themselves and their descendants with the urgent responsibility of celebrating these days every year, and continued in every family of the Jews, wherever they were, that the memory of this great occasion should not be allowed to fade from their minds (vv. 26-28).
Verses 17-19. With the fourteenth day of Adar they rested and made it a feast of rejoicing. The Jews in Shushan celebrated the thirteenth and fourteenth day and rested on the fifteenth day. This was the origin of the traditional feast of Purim still kept by the orthodox Jews in commemoration of the great deliverance and the wonderful history of Mordecai and Esther. It is mostly celebrated by public reading of this book and by the distribution of gifts.
Verses 20-32. The final section of this chapter gives the account of a message which Mordecai sent to the Jews in the provinces of the Persian kingdom enjoining them to observe these days, the feast of Purim. Queen Esther also wrote with all authority confirming this second letter of Purim.
In the Hebrew Bible the book of Esther is placed in the third main part, that is the "writings" (hebr. ketubim). The book belongs to the so-called five "scrolls" (hebr. megilloth), which are still read today at certain feast days in the synagogue. Esther is read during the Purim feast on 14th and 15th Adar (February/March). Hence it belongs to the best-known OT-books with the Jews and it is also the book, which has the oldest copies. The book of Esther has served the Jewish people as support of their national hope and especially so in the days of persecution.
Only at Shushan did the second day's slaughter take place. The Jews throughout the rest of the land in gathering together, killed 75,000 of their enemies in the one day, the 13th day of the month Adar, and they also took no plunder (v. 16). On the 14th day they rested and made the day one of feasting and gladness (v. 17). God had made their victory complete, though even then His name is not mentioned.
THE FEAST OF PURIM INSTITUTED (vv. 18-32)
The Jews at Shushan, however, having engaged for two days in destroying their enemies, rested on the 15th day of the month, making it a day of feasting and gladness (v. 18). Since those in the surrounding villages had done this on the 14th day of the month (v. 19), Mordecai wrote letters to all the Jews that both the 14th and 15th days of that month were to be considered holidays for the Jews from that time every year, a time for giving gifts to one another and to the poor (vv. 20-22). The Jews accepted this as a yearly feast because they considered that the memory of this whole occasion should not be allowed to fade from their minds. Thus, verses 24-25 recount briefly the history of the plot of Haman the Agagite to annihilate the Jews, casting Pur, that is, the lot, which in the case of Haman, was identified with the consultation of evil spirits. But though his scheme at first seemed to be successful, by the intervention of Esther whom the king not only respected, but loved, there was a complete exposure of the whole plot, with the result that the wickedness of Haman recoiled on his own head, he and his sons being hanged on the gallows he had erected for Mordecai.
Thus, 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 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" (Jn. 7:2). Why? Because it was not primarily the Lord's honor that the Jews sought, but their own enjoyment. What sad disrespect for the Lord's feasts!
Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Persia with the object of confirming the yearly observance of the Feast of Purim at the appointed time. Esther also was identified with this decree. From that time the observance of the Feast of Purim has been continued in Israel, observed even where Jews are scattered in other lands.
"And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them; because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; but when it [or Esther] came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head; and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows. Wherefore they called these days Purim, after the name of Pur. Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and [of that] which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them, 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 keep these two days according to the writing thereof, and according to the appointed time thereof, every year; and [that] these days [should be] remembered and kept throughout every generation, 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 perish from their seed. And Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. And he sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, words of peace and truth, to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, [in] the matters of the fastings and their cry. And the commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book" (ver. 20-32).
Here again, it will be noticed, the book cleaves to its sincerely impressed character, and not even then is He named Whom ordinarily and naturally it were the highest duty to proclaim. Yet is the utter difference made plain in man's word; for the Talmud lays down that at the feast of Purim a man should drink till he know not the difference between "Blessed be Mordecai," and "Cursed be Haman." "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Judaism, and Christendom where Christ is ignored, each sinking into the driest ditch of heathenism, both dare to sanction a revelling carnival where had been a holy feast.
The king of the nations no longer appears on the scene except in dependence on Esther and Mordecai; they alone are in question until the end of the chapter. It is Mordecai who, like the future Messiah, orders joy and rest. "The Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them." They submit themselves to the written word of him who had been unknown and ignored by all and by themselves, and whom God had now exalted in the sight of one and all.
The memorial of these days is perpetuated from age to age. Only one feast, the feast of Purim, is mentioned in this book: it is a new feast which will last forever in commemoration of the deliverance of the earthly people of God. There is perfect harmony between Esther and Mordecai, and the people; what Esther and Mordecai establish, the people establish for themselves. (v. 31) What is "written in the book" (v. 32) on the occasion of their fasting and their cry, is celebrated in all generations. Thus ends this account which leads us to the dawn of the glorious time which follows deliverance, and leads us prophetically to the threshold of the millennial reign of Christ.
Verses
- Proverbs 16:33The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole decision is of Jehovah.
- John 5:1After these things was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
- Jeremiah 30:7Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
- Esther 9:17–3217on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and joy. 18But the Jews that were at Shushan gathered themselves together on the thirteenth [day] thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and joy. 19Therefore the Jews of the villages that dwell in the country towns make the fourteenth of the month Adar a day of joy and feasting, and a good day, and on which they send portions one to another. 20And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews near and far that were in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, 21to establish [this] among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, 22as the days on which the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month that was turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. 23And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written to them. 24For Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the oppressor of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them and to destroy them; 25and when [Esther] came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head; and they hanged him and his sons on the gallows. 26Therefore 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, 27the 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; 28and 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. 29And queen Esther the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. 30And he sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, words of peace and truth, 31to confirm these days of Purim in their fixed times, according as Mordecai the Jew and queen Esther had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, as to the matters of the fastings and their cry. 32And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.