Esther 9

1-17 Destruction of the Enemies of the Jews

1-4 In Adar, the 12th month, 13th day, Jews gather and take vengeance on their enemies, helped by provincial officials, who fear Mordecai and his expanding influence.

5-10 Jews strike down all their enemies, including 500 in Susa and the 10 sons of Haman, but they “did not touch the plunder.”

11-13 After reporting this to Esther, the king asks her what else she wants, and she asks that the edict be extended to the next day and that Haman’s sons be hanged.

14-15 The king issues the decree, the sons are hanged and Jews kill 300 more in Susa but still do not touch the plunder.

16-17 In the rest of the provinces Jews gather “to defend their lives” on the 13th, killing 75,000 of those who hate them, but take no plunder. On the 14th day they rest and celebrate.

18-32 The Feast of Purim Inaugurated

18-19 The Jews in Susa rest and celebrate on the 15th day, but the Jews in the villages hold the 14th day as a holiday, sending gifts of food to each other.

20-23 Mordecai sends letters to the Jews, encouraging them to keep both the 14th and 15th as days of celebration, with gifts of food to each other and to the poor, and so begins the custom.

24-26 These days are called Purim, because Haman and cast Pur, or “the lot,” to destroy them (3:7).

27-28 Jews accept this as custom, so these days:

should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every family, province, and city; and these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.

29-32 Queen Esther confirms a second letter wishing peace and security to Jews in all 127 provinces, and enjoining the Jews to keep the regulation fasts and lamentations, fixing the practices of Purim. I’m not sure how the fasts and lamentations fit in with the celebration of gifts. From Jamieson, Fausset and Brown:

It became a season of sunny memories to the universal body of the Jews; and, by the letters of Mordecai, dispersed through all parts of the Persian empire, it was established as an annual feast, the celebration of which is kept up still. On both days of the feast, the modern Jews read over the Megillah or Book of Esther in their synagogues. The copy read must not be printed, but written on vellum in the form of a roll; and the names of the ten sons of Haman are written on it a peculiar manner, being ranged, they say, like so many bodies on a gibbet. The reader must pronounce all these names in one breath. Whenever Haman's name is pronounced, they make a terrible noise in the synagogue. Some drum with their feet on the floor, and the boys have mallets with which they knock and make a noise. They prepare themselves for their carnival by a previous fast, which should continue three days, in imitation of Esther's; but they have mostly reduced it to one day [JENNING, Jewish Antiquities].